Rejaul Karim Byron

The private investment-to-GDP ratio in Bangladesh declined in the current fiscal year owing to a lower confidence among investors amid the persisting dollar crisis and global uncertainty, higher inflation and a fall in demand for goods in international markets.

Bangladesh will get $4.9 billion in loan from the World Bank for a dozen projects in the next fiscal year, given that those are ready on time for implementation as stipulated by the global lender.

Bangladesh’s gross domestic product is estimated to have grown at a slower pace in the current financial year with the biggest blow stemming from the industrial sector, official figures showed.

The government is in a dilemma over the timing of increasing the salary of its employees as a risk of further rise in inflation is associated with it.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the National Board of Revenue not to increase the ordinary people’s tax burden as it looks to improve its revenue collection by 16 percent in the upcoming fiscal year.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for a conservative budget for the next fiscal year, discounting the impact of the forthcoming national elections on the pre-budget exercise.

The more than seven years average project implementation period for Bangladesh between 2016 and 2021 presents a risk to the effective implementation of the next country partnership framework, said the World Bank in a report recently.

The International Monetary Fund staff mission yesterday expressed reservations about the likelihood of Bangladesh meeting the minimum reserve requirements for the second tranche of the $4.7 billion loan.

The central bank’s planned move to a single, more market-determined, exchange rate would be central towards stabilising the precarious foreign exchange reserves and reducing external imbalances, said global ratings agency Fitch yesterday.

The government plans to increase its development spending slightly in the upcoming fiscal year due to the narrow fiscal space, the dollar crisis, the conditions attached to the IMF’s loan programme, and higher expenses on subsidies and interest payments. 

The World Bank Group is set to provide Bangladesh with upwards of $2 billion every year over the next four years to help the country gear up for its next phase of development.

There is likely to be yet another increase in electricity tariff by June as the government looks to shed its subsidy burden in line with the demands of the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF staff mission is set to begin its next series of meetings with the Bangladesh authorities today to measure how the country is faring with the $4.7 billion loan programme.

The government is set to enact the first-ever public audit law that will usher in more transparency and accountability in public expenditure and expand the scope of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s spending on subsidies and interest payments surged 45 per cent year-on-year in the first eight months of this fiscal year, turning out to be the highest in at least a decade.

The 5.5 percent growth forecast made by the International Monetary Fund for the Bangladesh economy would be decent given the pressure emanating from the external side, said a top official of the multilateral lender yesterday.

The poverty rate in Bangladesh has dropped significantly but income inequality is at an all-time high, according to the latest version of the Household Income and Expenditure survey -- in a puzzling development that raises questions about the nature of economic growth seen in recent times.

The poverty rate in Bangladesh has declined to 18.7 per cent and the extreme poverty rate stood at 5.6 per cent, according to the latest data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Bangladesh is poised to meet five of the six targets set by the International Monetary Fund for March as part of the $4.7 billion loan programme.

The finance ministry has already finalised the revised budget for this fiscal year and the concerned ministries are informed about it but it will not be made public until June.