Bhutan Agriculture Report on Bhutan's economy 2002 Bhutan Information Bhutan Videos

Agriculture

A report released by the national statistical bureau (NSB) says that the country's economy grew by 6.7 percent in 2002 . NSB is the central apex body to validate, authenticate and disseminate national statistics to ensure uniformity in the use of concepts, definitions and classification to enable comparison of data at the national and international levels.

Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita US$ 835 Hydro-power sector 10,8 % of GDP Agriculture 33.2 % of GDP Construction sector 25 % of GDP Manufacturing sector 7.2 % of GDP Primary sector agriculture and mining 33.1 % of GDP Secondary sector manufacturing, energy and construction 33.4 % of GDP Tertiary sector service 33.5 % of GDP Economic growth rate 6.7 %

Gross domestic product (GDP)

According to the NSB's national accounts report 2002, gross domestic product (GDP) climbed to Nu 4,551.0 million from Nu 4,266.0 million in 2001. The per capita GDP was Nu 40,598 or US$ 835 and gross national product (GNP) per-capita was Nu 35,954 or US$ 740. Total consumption expenditure - all capital and consumer goods purchased by government and private - rose by 12 percent to Nu 18,069.7 million from Nu 16,135.8 million in the previous year.

Total investment - by government and private in machinery and equipment, constructions, stocks, etc.- increased by 18.3 percent of which 42 percent was funded by gross domestic saving and the other 68 percent by grants and soft loans. In 2002, total investment was Nu 14,469.6 million compared with Nu 12,311.3 million in the previous year.

Economic growth rate
However, the overall economic growth rate fell short of the targeted rate of 11 percent mainly because of the fall in growth in trade by (-)5.2 percent and in the finance sector by (-)7.2 percent. The negative growth in the trade was largely due to the September 11 incident in USA which damaged tourism and related industries like hotels. The decrease in the finance sector was mainly due to a drop in the oversea interest earning of RMA by Nu 211.9 million which was in turn hurt by the decline in the dollar's interest rate, according to the report.

Hydro-power sector
The report pointed out that the economy in 2002 was sustained largely by the additional generation of hydro-power from Kurichu and Basochhu I power projects of 33.6 million and 110.0 million units. Consequently, the hydro-power sector grew by 21.8 percent and its share in GDP saw 10.8 percent growth. Agriculture was still dominant with 33.2 percent of the GDP, although in 2002 it grew by 2.6 percent only. The construction sector which has been robust for the past four years, saw a growth of 25 percent and its share in the GDP jumped to 19 percent from 15.1 percent in 2001. The growth was fueled by huge investment in Tala power project, the low-income housing project at Thimphu and Phuentsholing, and the Thimphu expressway.

On the other hand, the manufacturing sector which has been on the downslide since 1996 grew by a paltry 0.4 percent with 7.2 percent share in the GDP.

The share of the primary sector - agriculture and mining- in the GDP has declined from 56.3 percent in 1980 to 33.1 percent in 2002 while the share of the secondary sector - manufacturing, energy and construction- has increased to 33.4 percent in 2002 from 11.4 percent in 1980. The tertiary or service sector has not changed much though. It's contribution to GDP in the last 22 years from 1980 has barely been over one percent to 33.46 percent in 2002.