Finance Division will hold its first fiscal coordination council meeting on the 6th of February after new government assumed office this month.
“First fiscal coordination council meeting after the new government took office will be held next week,” a senior official of the Finance Division told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“The meeting is essential for the government agencies to adjust fiscal and monetary policies,” he added.
“As there was a loss of around Tk50,000 crore during the recent political unrest, high-level directives are necessary for banks, small and medium enterprises and government agencies,” the official said.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith will preside over the meeting to be attended, among others, by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed.
The finance ministry along with the government agencies has estimated that the GDP growth in the current fiscal year may be at 6-6.5%, down from the budgetary target 7.2%.
But the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), an independent think-tank, estimated the economy will grow at 5.6-5.8% this fiscal as the four sectors lost over Tk49,000 crore due to continuous hartals and blockades.
The damages in terms of money were calculated taking into consideration 55 hartals and blockades enforced between July 2013 and January 2014 – before and after the general election held on January 5.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, a member of the coordination council rule out the CPD’s estimate saying “the think-tank didn’t follow any method to prepare their estimation.”
“CPD’s estimate about economic growth is wrong. They didn’t apply any method,” said Dr Shamsul Alam, also a member of Planning Commission.
According to him, the country has the capacity to absorb the shocks of economic loss of such scale and the economy will grow at 6.5% this fiscal which will end on June 30.
He said agricultural output will increase this year compared to other sectors including industries.
