High inflation blamed for declining growth

Former adviser to the caretaker government Akbar Ali Khan has expressed concern over the country's declining growth rate saying that it is a negative impact of high inflation.
"The high inflation rate is becoming a humanitarian crisis rather than an economic problem," he said at the publication ceremony of the first issue of a research journal at the National Press Club yesterday.
Shamunnay, an independent economic research institution, published the quarterly, Bangladesh Economic Outlook.
The quarterly found the food inflation rate much higher than the rate the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics has shown in its data.
According to the Bangladesh Economic Outlook, food inflation was 21.3 percent on an average for the low-income group in August 2007.
On the contrary the BBS said the rate was 12.5 percent in July 2007.
Presided over by Unnayan Shamannay Chairman Dr Atiur Rahman, the function was addressed by Brac Executive Director Dr Mahbub Hossain and Selim Raihan, a visiting fellow of Shamunnay.
The former finance adviser said the economy is facing crisis as the industrial sector is experiencing a poor investment and agriculture is facing pressure for recent flood.
Akbar Ali Khan suggested import of a huge quantity of food to cope with the food crisis and to face inflation for food items. In this context he referred to the 1998 flood and said around 62 lakh tonnes of food were imported during that period.
He however advocated continuation of rapid relief activity in order to give the poor a respite from the unbearable inflation situation.
The former adviser suggested that private sector should be given the responsibility to operate the market independently as the driving force of the economy.
The government intervention in the private sector does not yield any positive result, Khan said, adding 'following the World War II, many countries tried to intervene in market but those efforts turned futile.'
The quarterly identified four challenges for the economy, which included stagnation of growth, high inflation rate, post-flood management and regaining business confidence.