Bangladesh

Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed, emergency caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections planned for January 2007 in an effort to reform the political system and root out corruption. In contrast to the strikes and violent street rallies that had marked Bangladeshi politics in previous years, the parliamentary elections finally held in late December 2008 were mostly peaceful and Sheikh HASINA Wajed was reelected prime minister. About a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Taka (ISO code: BDT)
* Central bank discount rate: 5% (15 December 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 13% (30 September 2009)
* Stock of money (M1): $10.35 billion (30 September 2009)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $45.23 billion (30 September 2009)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Bangladesh: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	45 694	47 097	46 988	47 571	51 914	56 561	60 278	61 901	68 415	79 554
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Bangladesh: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	 	 	36.151	36.655	36.161	 	 	 	 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Bangladesh: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	 	 	9.830 	10.209	10.100	9.965 	10.310	10.185	10.253	10.957
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Bangladesh: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.	 	 	9.023 	9.073 	9.081 	8.754 	9.381 	9.670 	10.080	10.860
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	3.678 	3.590 	3.580 	 	 	 	 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Bangladesh on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Bangladesh
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
* Garment Factories, Changing Women’s Roles in Poor Countries by Vikas Bajaj, July 2010
Category:Countries