The Bhutanese Leading the way.
According to the National Accounts Statistics 2018, released by the National Statistics Bureau, Bhutan’s economic growth plummeted by 3.39 percent last year with a total growth at 4.63 percent in 2017. The fall in the growth rate is attributed to a reduction in the generation of revenue by major sectors, like power, and forestry, and negative growth in the education and health sectors.
Slow growth of the construction industry, general government, and finance sectors are also some of the reasons for the economic slowdown in 2017.
Gross National Income (GNI)
The Gross National Income (GNI) also decreased by 1.81 percent last year at 4.56 percent as compared to 6.37 percent in 2016. The decline is attributed to drop in net inflow of primary income from abroad.
“The inflow of primary income in 2017 recorded a drop of 3.29 percent. In regard to the outflow of primary income, it recorded a growth of 4.35 percent in 2017, as compared to 2016,” the report states.
Per Capita GDP and GNI
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in 2017 increased to Nu 223,815.18 from Nu 205,274.74 in 2016, a growth of 9.33 percent.
GNI per capita in 2017 stood at 3.36 percent grwoth as compared to 6.71 percent growth in 2016.
Inflation
The GDP deflator in 2017, which is the measure of price change for goods and services produced in the domestic economy, was recorded at 5.49 percent as compared to 4.49 percent in 2016- an increase of 1 percent from the previous year.
The inflation or the price change as measured by Consumer Price Index was 4.96 percent in 2017, which is an increase of 1.74 percent from the 3.22 percent in 2016.
Trade Balance
The trade deficit of the country has continued to improve for the past two years. The trade balance was recorded at Nu 33,685.24 mn in 2017 and it accounted for 20.46 percent of the GDP.
Export of Goods and Services
The report states that the economy noted reduction of export for two preceding years. However, in 2017 it recorded a growth of 6.77 percent. The export of goods accounted to 77.64 percent while the export of services accounted to 22.36 percent. The total export of goods and services accounted for 29.09 percent of the GDP.
Import of Goods and Services
The total value of import in current prices was recorded at Nu 81,578.7 mn in 2017 as compared to Nu.74,984.65 mn in 2016, which accounted to for 49.55 percent of the GDP. Within the imports, goods accounted for 82.47 percent and services for 17.53 percent.
National Saving and Investment
A Gross National Savings decreased in 2017 at Nu 45,527.5 mn against Nu 48,656.07 mn in 2016, which is decrease of Nu 3128.55 mn (9.72 percent). Of the total national savings, government savings was Nu 9118.52 mn and private savings, which includes households, private and public corporations, was Nu 36,409 mn. With the drop in the gross national savings, the investment fund in the economy continues to show deficit.
