Economy showing signs of a turnaround

Although uncertainty prevails over the country's economy with regard to both global and domestic contexts, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday portrayed a rosy picture of it in parliament.

Presenting a report on the implementation progress of the national budget for 2021-22 in the fiscal year's first quarter from July to September, Kamal said despite the pandemic's effects, the country's macroeconomy has started to turn around.

He hoped that the 7.2 per cent growth target for gross domestic product (GDP) would be achieved this fiscal year.

The GDP growth rate, that marked a fall to 3.45 per cent in fiscal year 2019-20 due to the pandemic, rose to 5.43 per cent last fiscal year (2020-21) thanks to different initiatives taken by the government, he said.

Hoping to keep the inflation rate within 5.3 per cent, the minister said the monetary policy has been formulated keeping these targets in mind.

"Though there is a possibility of inflation due to rise of fuel price in the global market and eventual price hike in the domestic market, I hope that the inflation rate would be at tolerable limit by the end of this year," he said.

The finance minister hoped that the country's per capita income would increase to $2,785 in the current fiscal year of 2021-22. In 2020-21, per capita income stood at $2,227.

Due to the sincerity and efforts of the pro-poor government, both the poverty and extreme poverty rates have come down to 20.5 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively in 2020, said Kamal.

He informed that remittance inflow in the country was at $5.41 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal year, which was 19.44 per cent less than that in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Mentioning that labour export had resumed, including to the main market of Saudi Arabia, he hoped that remittance inflow at the end of the current fiscal year would reach levels similar to that of the previous year.

Kamal said activities were underway through Dhaka Mass Transit Company to start passenger transport in the Uttara-Agargaon section of MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) Line-6 by December 2022.

He reiterated his hope for the Padma bridge to be opened for vehicular movement by June this year.

As a whole, all the indicators of the macroeconomy including growth in GDP, per capita income as well as export are in the positive mode in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, said the minister.

According to the report submitted by the minister yesterday, total budgetary spending in the first quarter of the current fiscal year had reached Tk 65,739 crore, rising by 1.48 per cent year-on-year.

In the same period in the last fiscal year of 2020-21, total budgetary spending had decreased by 4.83 per cent.

Around 10.89 per cent of the total budget of Tk 6,03,680 crore allocated for this fiscal year was implemented in the first three months till September, it stated.