STRUCTURAL INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF VARIOUS SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY OF BANGLADESH WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON AGRICULTURE

There is a great interdependence between various sectors of an economy. An input-output table describes social accounts for the whole economy and reflects the interdependence of industries. The total change of economy from any specified change in final demand in an industry is assessed by the extent of interaction of the sectors. Sectoral output, income and employment generated in the economy are used to policy decision regarding investment or other government expenditure on sectoral output, income and employment. Thus, the present study was undertaken with a view to find out the structural interrelationships among the different sectors and to assess the sectoral potentiality of the economy. The latest input-output table containing 79 sectors constructed by the Bangladesh Planning Commission was used. Manufacturing uses higher amounts of intermediate agricultural inputs and it is a dominant sector producing the highest total output (36.9 per cent of the total output). Among the agricultural production sectors, wheat, oilseeds, tobacco and major spices have high import contents whereas the agro-based manufacturing sectors have low import requirements. A strong interrelation exists between the manufacturing sectors and primary agricultural sectors which supply the basic raw materials to manufacturing sectors. The agro-processing industries generate higher income and employment whereas most of the manufacturing sectors other than agro-processing sectors show comparatively lower employment generation. The income and employment multiplier values were relatively much smaller for most of the primary sectors, service sectors and trade sectors.