Bangladesh takes first step to count unpaid domestic, care work in GDP

Bangladesh has for the first time put a value on unpaid household and care work, in a move seen as a step towards recognising women’s invisible contribution to the economy. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and UN Women Bangladesh have launched a new Household Production Satellite Account (HPSA), developed with support from the Asian Development Bank under the global Women Count programme. The HPSA estimates that activities such as cooking, cleaning, childcare and caring for the elderly or disabled contributed Tk 6.7 trillion ($56bn) in 2021 – equivalent to 18.9 percent of the country’s GDP. The initiative follows the interim government’s pledge in the 2025-26 budget to reflect unpaid labour in official economic data. The estimates draw on the...