Bangladesh is moving forward in term of economic development as the country’s most of the economic indicators showing positive growth despite the global crisis.
State Minister of PlanningDrShamsulAlamon Tuesday made the statements while speaking at the “DJFB Development Dialogue” at NEC conference room in the planning commission in the capital.
Bangladesh Development Journalist Forum (DJFB) presidentHamid-uz-Zaman presided over the development dialogue whileShahanuareShaidShahin, DJFB General Secretary, moderated the programme.
DrShamsulAlam said, “The economy of the country is in the right path as the government has shown sound macroeconomic management with skills and efficiency especially during the pandemic period.The general point to point inflation is gradually coming down. So, I can say the economy is under control.”
The inflation was 8.57 percent in January which was 5.86 percent in January last year, he said, adding that the wage rate has been witnessing an uptrend as it reached 7.06 percent in January up from 7 percent in December.
Highlighting the comparative performances of the major macroeconomic indicators, he said the major economic indicators showed that the country’s economy is in the right direction.
Shamsulsaid that the remittance has been rising last several months to stand at $12.45 billion during the July-January period of the current fiscal year (FY23) while the foreign currency reserve, which was hovering around $32 billion over the last couple of months, stood at $32.64 billion on February 8.
He mentioned that the export earnings also rose to $32.44 billion during the July-January period of the current fiscal year while the import bill payments reached $41.19 billion during the July-December period of this fiscal year.
“On the other hand, the gap on the current account balance is gradually narrowing down while the FDI flow to Bangladesh during the July-December period of the current year reached $1.15 billion. All of these are indicating a positive sign,” he informed.
State Minister of Planning said that many had voiced their concerns that Bangladesh could experience situation like Sri Lanka.
“However, we had always said that Bangladesh would not experience such situation as our macroeconomic parameters are authentic while the socio-economic indicators were positive despite the pandemic. Sri Lanka can learn from Bangladesh,” he mentioned.
When asked about the major challenges before the economy in the coming days, he said the major challenge for the government would be on how to keep the impact of high inflation on the commoners at minimum level adding that the government has been taking pragmatic steps in this regard.
Stating that there is no relation between the increase in commodity prices and the IMF loan, the state minister said that even if the IMF did not give the loan, we would have needed to increase the prices in some places.
“The amount of loans given by the IMF is very small compared to our total GDP. That's why we say that commodity prices have not increased under the terms of the IMF. Even without the IMF loan, we would have had to cut subsidies and raise the prices of some commodities. So IMF loans have nothing to do with rising commodity prices. IMF loans are not conditional on rising commodity prices. We got more loan than we asked for. IMF lends because it has confidence in our overall economy. The IMF is more than happy to lend. Pakistan is yet to get IMF loan but we have got more than that we asked.”
