Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman yesterday affirmed containing inflation within the budgetary target for the next fiscal year that remained over 7% in the recent months.
“I won’t be able to afford the skyrocketing inflation as the government plans to keep it below 7%, but it would be a tougher job to control inflation under present situation,” he told a seminar in the capital.
United International University organised the seminar titled “National Budget 2014-15: Challenge for Implementation.” Regarding the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Atiur said: “It may be ambitious one, but strategically it’s a sensible budget.”
Commenting on the capital market, he said: “The market is now more stable than ever before. The market could be the source for huge investments and mega projects, as it is now being run professionally.”
He said the central bank would never allow the stock market to become another bubble to be busted again, as the banks’ exposure to the stock market was set to a limit. The governor put importance on co-ordination between money market and capital market for bringing discipline in both the markets.
Economic governance is a must for proper implementation of the budget as cost escalation of projects has been seen a sharp rise in recent budget trends, said Hossain Zillur Rahman, former advisor to the caretaker government of Bangladesh.
“For the last few years, the GDP growth has got stuck and moving around 6%, but we have to come out of it to get the status of a middle income country,” said Zillur.
“As the government has sought cooperation from us, we are ready to co-operate the government, but it has to ensure the accountability to the mass people.”
