ILLUSTRATION: RUMMAN R KALAM

About 39.47 lakh establishments engaged in wholesale and retail trade, including motorcycle repair shops, contribute around 14 per cent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to a survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

According to the survey revealed recently, 86.27 lakh people were reported to be working in the distributive trade sector comprising wholesale and retail trade as of December 2019.

Among them, 88.30 per cent have been working full time while the rest part time.

The number of workers in this sector was 84.14 lakh in the previous year with 87.79 per cent working full time.

The BBS conducted the survey for the first time in this distributive trade sector to assess the number of wholesale and retail trade establishments and the sector's contribution to the country's economy.

The survey report was compiled in September this year based on the information collected as of December 2019.

The BBS said for compilation of the GDP, the whole economy was divided into 15 sectors and the distributive trade came up as the third major one after manufacturing and agriculture.

The trade sector is a major component of Bangladesh's service sector and important for fuelling the growth of the economy, representing about 14 per cent of the GDP and providing employment opportunities to a large number of people, it said.

Of a total of 39.47 lakh establishments, 5.49 per cent were on repairing motor vehicles and motorcycles while wholesale and retail trade, except those for motor vehicles and motorcycles, accounted for 6.15 per cent and 88.36 per cent respectively.

As for gender composition of full-time employees, the share of males in the trade sector was extremely high. In 2019, males represented 97.65 per cent and females represented only 2.35 per cent.

Significant gender inequality exists in access to and participation in economic activities related to the trade sector, it said.

In the case of full-time employment growth, the survey found that the full-time annual employment growth in the trade sector was estimated at 3.15 per cent in 2019 compared to that of the previous year.

In 2019, the total employment cost was Tk 38,353 crore as against Tk 342,367 crore in 2018 with an annual growth of 12.02 per cent in the sector.

The total gross output was recorded at Tk 560,900 crore while Gross Value Added (GVA) for the trade sector appeared to be Tk 479,473 crore for fiscal 2019-20, according to the report.

For establishments engaged in trading, savings (gross) for the accounting period of 2019 came up to Tk 396,450 crore. In this case, disposable income and savings are equal because final consumption is zero.

For the trade sector, net lending appeared to be Tk 395,813 crore for fiscal 2019-20, indicating that this sector is providing financial resources to other sectors, according to the survey.