The country is losing approximately Taka 3300 crore (33 billion) daily due to current shutdown enforced to slow Coronavirus spreading as a group of Dhaka University researchers have predicated catastrophic impact on the economy. As the countrywide coronavirus endemic is causing havoc on every field of economy, the government is yet to publish any document identifying current economic damages.
If this situation continues, economic losses will surpass one lakh crore taka in this month, revealed a research of the Institute of Health Economics of Dhaka University titled “The Impact of Corona on Economy” on Tuesday. Bangladesh declared public holidays from March 26 to May 4 and shut down all government offices, educational institutions, garments and other public and private institutions to stem rapid spreading of Coronavirus.
Key researcher Prof Sayed Abdul Hamid said, “An attempt has been made to calculate the amount of short-term or current losses in the domestic economy of Bangladesh on the basis of 2018-19 GDP. Bangladesh should think about taking realistic steps right now to minimize the damage.”
“The crisis will be increased which couldn’t be calculated right now,” he said. Researchers feared the lockdown could continue throughout May and even into June. The country is likely to incur losses of about Tk 2,05,005 crore, which is 9 percent of the last year’s GDP.
The survey report estimates the losses in three major sectors of Bangladesh's economy - agriculture, industry and services. According to the survey, the daily loss due to lockdown is Tk 200 crore in agriculture, Tk 1,131 crore in industry, Tk 1,131 crore in manufacturing and construction and Tk 2,000 crore in services.
Professor Sayed Abdul Hamid praised government’s incentive packages to combat with economic depression. He suggested ensuring smooth implementation of the incentive packages as well as finding new ways to overcoming the economic losses of the lockdown. According to him, if this lockdown extends, most small businesses and small-scale producers will not be able to turn around easily.
Besides, he thinks, Bangladesh's export-oriented readymade garment industry will face more competition. In order to survive in this competition, the researcher emphasized the smooth implementation of the government-announced incentive packages. Notably Prof Sayed Abdul Hamid, former director of Dhaka University Health Economics Institute, also led a researchers group to measure the damage after dengue outbreak in the last year.
