Economy needs breather urgently

BANGLADESH Shop Owners' Association representing 25 lakh retailers has put across an SOS to political leaders to rescue them from impending ruination. After the big business' desperate call to end indefinite blockade and hartal, it is the turn for medium and small retail businesses to add their voice to the mounting anxiety over economic slump.

The daily average retail sales have dropped by 70 percent dipping from Tk. 3,000 crore to Tk. 900 only. At this rate, the cumulative loss over more than a month in the retail sector alone exceeds Tk. 63,000 crore. Add to this discomfiture, the plight of 24 lakh hawkers and street vendors who see a sharp fall in the number of buyers due to fears of arson and bomb attacks. 

All the same, the operating costs like rents, utility bills and salaries will have to be borne by shop owners to stay afloat. But how long can the shop-owners meet such recurrent expenditure, including bank loan repayment installment in the face of falling demands and sales? With their fast shrinking staying power they risk being shuttered down as unemployment hits the usually employable manpower.

Let's not forget, when many an economy tumbled through the knock-on effects of the long-drawn global economic meltdown, steady domestic demands in Bangladesh economy helped us weather the storm. The supreme irony is that such an inherent strength of our economy is being  frittered away -- thanks to the short-sighted, ego-centric politics preying on the primacy of national economy which is a given in other countries.