During the 10th parliamentary election, the ruling Awami League announced its manifesto with the slogan “Peace, democracy, development, and progress – Bangladesh moves forward”.
Several promises were made regarding economic growth.
Four years into its term, the government has fulfilled many of the promises.
Overall, the Awami League has succeeded in accelerating growth, while it failed to properly handle the financial sector as anomalies hit the sector hard.
Top 3 successes
Achieving lower-middle income country statusDuring the last four years, the biggest achievement of the government was achieving lower-middle income country (LMIC) status.
The World Bank on July 1, 2015, declared on its website that Bangladesh has upgraded to LMIC from a low-income country (LIC).GDP growthThe record GDP growth was another bigger achievement for the Awami League.
The country’s economic growth accelerated to 7.28% at the end of fiscal year 2016-17 (FY17) from 6.01% in FY13.
Also, the per capita income rose from $1,054 in FY13 to $1,610 in FY17, according to the Ministry of Planning.InflationThe government has succeeded in maintaining the overall inflation rate at around 5.5%, though the price hike of food items in the last few years was a major concern.
According to latest Bangladesh Bank data, the average inflation rate was 5.59% as of October, 2017, while it was around 8% at the end of 2013.Top 3 failures
Anomalies hit financial sectorThe government has failed to properly handle the financial sector which is threatening the overall success.
Bangladesh’s financial sector, especially the banks, faced a severe governance crisis. This helped push up the amount of defaulted loans in the sector, which at the end of September, 2017 stood at Tk80,307 crore.
Among the 57 commercial banks, the defaulted loans of nine commercial banks, which started their operation four years ago, have stood at Tk964 crore at the end of September 2017.
The banks were given licence based on the owners’ political affiliation to the incumbent government.Drop in ease of doing business indexBangladesh has ranked 177 among 190 countries in the index of the World Bank’s ease of doing business index in 2017. The country stood at 132 in 2013.
Ease of Doing Business in Bangladesh averaged 143.90 from 2008 until 2017, reaching an all-time high of 178 in 2015 and a record low of 115 in 2008.Stagnant investmentThere was no remarkable growth in the investment ratio scenario during the four years of the incumbent government.
The investment ratio to the GDP in 2016-17 fiscal year was 30.27%, while it was 26.84% in FY13.
