Eyes 7.2pc GDP growth

In the proposed budget for 2021-22, the government has fixed gross domestic product growth target at 7.2 per cent remaining consistent with the long-term plan and taking the post-Covid recovery situation into account.

The new budget is about 17.4pc of the GDP and around 12pc higher than the revised budget of the current fiscal while 6.34pc higher than the main budget.

While placing the budget on Thursday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said, “Bangladesh’s sustained achievement of high GDP growth in the last decade has been halted temporarily due to the effects of the Covid-pandemic. Even though we achieved a record 8.15 percent growth in FY2018-2019, it has slowed down to 5.2 percent in FY2019-2020 due to the pandemic.” 

“The GDP growth rate was originally estimated to be 8.20 percent for FY2020-2021 on the assumptions that the economy would recover from the impact of the pandemic. But the economic activities slowed down and the expected momentum in import and export activities did not take place due to the continuation of the impact of the pandemic and the surge of its second wave and resulting lockdowns in various countries in the world including Bangladesh,” the minister added. 

He further said, “However, considering the better-than-expected growth in remittances and the implementation of the large stimulus packages by the government to facilitate economic recovery, the GDP growth rate has been revised at 6.1 percent for the current fiscal year. Alongside, the growth rate for FY2021-2022 has been fixed at 7.2 percent remaining consistent with the government’s long-term plan and taking the post-Covid recovery situation into account. It is expected that the inflation rate will be 5.3 percent during the period.”