The country’s overall economic situation is positive despite having significant downside risks in becoming a middle income country by 2024, says a periodical economic review of a local major chamber.
“However, the overall economic situation is positive as indicated by steady improvements in the major economic indicators,” says the review of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).
Styled, ‘Review of Economic Situation in Bangladesh, April-June, 2019,’ however, says despite the creditable performance of the economy in certain areas, overall achievements remain below their true potential.
“Inadequate infrastructure, lack of investor confidence in the economy that discourage fresh investment, and shortage of power and energy are now major impediments to the growth of the economy, along with weak implementation and ambiguity of regulatory and policy frameworks,” reads the review.
“These impediments must be removed to restore the confidence of the foreign investors as well as the country’s own business and investor community.”
The review in its observations says Bangladesh's impressive growth and its journey towards a higher development trajectory have been globally admired.
As per the provisional estimate of BBS, the GDP growth in the just-concluded fiscal year was 8.13 per cent, up from 7.86 per cent in the previous fiscal year. The actual GDP growth of 8.13 per cent also surpassed the government’s target of 7.80 per cent for the fiscal.
“Another laudable success of government and policy makers was to bring down the annual average inflation to 5.48 per cent in FY19 while the official target was 5.60 per cent,” the MCCI says in its quarterly review.
In the quarter under review (Q4 of FY19), it says some risk factors such as power and gas shortage and weak infrastructure that disrupt industrial production and also discourage new investment appeared as major obstacles to the expansion of economic activity.
Lauding the success of the economy, the chamber in its review says the multilateral lenders that previously downgraded the country’s growth projection to below 7% have raised their projection to between 7.3% and 8%.
“Although their projections are below the BBS estimate of 8.13%, the country’s achievement is immense compared with the GDP growth of many other developing countries,” concludes the review.
