Economy rebounding notably, policymakers tell CA

The top echelon of Bangladesh's present financial policymakers has noted that the economy, which endured stresses for long following mismanagement by the previous regime, now bounced back significantly.

They made their observations at a summit-level meeting Sunday on 'economic challenges and next steps', chaired by Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus.

After the stocktaking meeting was over, Shafiqul Alam, Press Secretary to the CA, apprised journalists in a media briefing about the discussions and decisions that also covered government actions for coming to grips with post-uprising law-and-order situation across the country.

Presentations on a string of economic and fiscal issues like inflation, export, import, foreign trade, and food and energy security were made in the meeting after which the chief adviser expressed his satisfaction over the performances on the economy with an observation: "We need to do better."

On the crucial issue of inflation, the meeting was told that during July last year, the average inflation rose above 11 per cent on a point-to-point basis, but it slid to 9.94 per cent in January this year.

"The government is expecting that due to the steps taken by it the inflation can be reduced to 7.0 to 8.0 per cent by June this year," Mr Shafiq told the media.

The CA was told in the meeting that gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the last fiscal was 4.22 per cent against the provisional estimate of 5.8 per cent.

The GDP size of the country in the last fiscal was 450 billion US dollars though it was estimated at $459 billion.

Similarly, the per-capita Gross National Income was finalised at 2738 dollars against the estimated $2784.

In the meeting the head of interim government directed the authorities concerned to ensure full autonomy of the central bank as soon as possible, and in response, the Bangladesh Bank Governor, Dr Ahsan H Mansur, told him that steps were underway in this regard.

The governor also mentioned that all kinds of hiring and recruitment in the central bank stayed suspended for the time being.

The meeting was told that due to the "plundering by oligarchs" during the past regime, 10 banks were in vulnerable condition but through constant monitoring by the central bank two of them showed signs of recovery.

The default loan in the banking sector stood at Tk2.84 trillion (284,977 crore) in September 2024.

The meeting also discussed the issue of bringing back the laundered money and it was told that the government is in discussion with several countries to repatriate the money through standard procedure.

Dr Yunus told the meeting those who were involved in laundering money must be brought to book, and in response, he was informed that 12 business groups were identified as the main perpetrators.

Already, all the assets of S Alam Group, one of the main oligarchs of the ousted regime, were expropriated, the BB informed the meeting.

Finance Adviser Dr Saleh Uddin Ahmed noted that the country gets back the macroeconomic stability and the situation is expected to improve further, the press secretary said.

The meeting was also told that with rising exports and employment, easing inflation, and improved balance-of-payments situation the economy will perform better in coming days.

"The government step to introduce tighter and contractionary monetary policy and enhance the rates on policy instruments coupled with supply of necessary commodities to poor people through safety-net programmes resulted in the easing of inflation," the meeting noted.

However, responding to a question on the CPD remark that the interim government had failed to take any significant step to revive the economy, the press secretary said easing of inflation and rise in exports resulted from the steps of the government.

The press secretary informed that the long standing issue of land mutation of the Korean EPZ in Chittagong was resolved by this government as the government handed over the mutation documents to the KEPZ authorities on Thursday.

"Many global giants like Samsung could not invest in this EPZ in a bigger way due to the mutation problem, which was not resolved by the previous regime," he said, adding that the oligarchs of the previous regime had "an ill intention to grab this land" and that is why the KEPZ problem was not resolved.

The meeting also dwelled on the latest law-and-order situation, in the wake of some troubles, and a coordinated crime-control action under a recently proposed command centre of forces. The government has just launched a countrywide drive codenamed 'Operation Devil Hunt'.

"The Command Centre under home ministry will roll out today where representatives of all the security agencies attached to the home ministry will be included. Even representatives of the armed forces will be there," Mr Shafiq said, adding that this centre will keep constant monitoring of the activities of the law enforcers in a bid to improve the law-and-order situation.

mirmostafiz@yahoo.com