Rejaul Karim Byron

The government is set to present a 12 percent bigger budget for fiscal 2023-24, the last of the Awami League government’s present tenure, as it looks to juggle austerity and growth ambitions.

The World Bank today said Bangladesh’s GDP would grow by 5.2 per cent in the current financial year, unchanged from its January forecast, as elevated inflation, tighter financial conditions, disruptive import restrictions, and global economic uncertainty keep hurting the economy.

The government is set to increase the amount of allowance under the social safety net programme in the next budget to cushion the poor from the impacts of high inflation.

The government is on track to meeting the International Monetary Fund’s tax collection target for March but may miss the mark in June.

The central bank has said the government will have to borrow more from non-banking sources to finance its expenditures in a bid to rein in higher inflationary pressures as the latter’s bank borrowing surged.

It seems the Bangladesh economy is stuck in a time warp, going by the latest edition of the Labour Force Survey unveiled yesterday.

In the end, was the government’s austerity stance just lip service?

Bangladesh is poised to get about $2 billion in budget support this fiscal year in a co-funding initiative led by the Asian Development Bank, in a development that would ease the continued pressure on the foreign currency reserves.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to travel to Washington DC towards the end of next month to celebrate 50 years of partnership between Bangladesh and the World Bank.

Development spending in Bangladesh stood at 32.10 per cent in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, the slowest pace of implementation during the rule of the Awami League, official figures showed.  

The Rooppur nuclear power plant is likely to be delayed further if the recent revision of one of the associated projects is any indication.

Although the government discourages implementing agencies of development projects in Bangladesh from seeking time and cost revisions, several proposals in this regard are placed at each meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

Economists yesterday stressed on addressing the persistently high inflation, macroeconomic stability and low revenue base in the pre-budget session for the upcoming fiscal year with the finance minister.

Three issues would be dictating the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, the last of the Awami League government’s present five-year term: the International Monetary Fund’s conditions, the persistently high inflation and next year’s national election.

The government’s expenses on interest payments rose more than 22 per cent to Tk 40,792 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal year owing largely to higher expenditures on treasury bills, official figures showed.  

Russia has proposed a direct payment system bypassing the global standard SWIFT to settle the dues for Rooppur nuclear power plant as the Soviet nation looks to navigate the sanctions from the West following the Ukraine war.

The government yesterday rolled back most of the austerity measures it imposed at the beginning of the fiscal year to better weather the economic upheaval although statistics indicate there has hardly been any improvement on the front.

The government has prepared a draft law for ensuring transparency and accountability in public sector purchases while also improving efficiency in the sector.

The overall cost for transmitting electricity from the Adani power plant in Godda, Jharkhand is set to increase further as two projects meant for that end are eyeing cost and time revisions.

Implementation of eight fast-track projects under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) was at a good pace in the first seven months of the current fiscal year of 2022-23 while that of other projects was slower.