The state of the economy was not good, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday.
“Our export and import growth is in the negative which would be positive at the end of the year,” Kamal said while speaking as the chief guest at the "Branch Managers’ Conference 2020" of Bangladesh Development Bank Limited (BDBL) at its head quarters, Dhaka.
“Our economy is not good now, as the global economy is also struggling.”
He said the global countries faced downward trend in both export and import business last year.
Finance Minister said the world economy went into recession from 1929 to 1934. The east Asian economy encountered bad time in 1997, he added.
During the period, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had announced fiscal incentives for several sectors to survive against the economic headwinds, Kamal mentioned.
The world economy fell into depression again in 2009 and the depression continued for long time, said AHM Mustafa Kamal.
“Some big banks and companies became bankrupt during the period. But we managed to remain as a strong economy and resilient despite global challenges,” kamal said.
The finance minister urged bankers to stand against the corrupt officials, saying all bankers are not corrupt except for a few.
“I am not a loan defaulter being a businessman. But people criticize me for soaring defaulted loans in the banking sector," kamal said.
Bangladesh Bank governor Fazle Kabir said the BDBL should maintain quality credit and its non-performing loans must go down to 20% this year from the current 38%.
“Now the bank’s non-performing loans stood at 38% at the end of December. The bank’s credit should be riskless,” governor added.
BDBL chairman Mohammad Mejbahuddin said that the bank was facing various challenges. The bank could not recover the defaulted loans owing to legal tussles, he added.
According to BDBL statement, in the last year, the bank’s operating profit declined to Tk40.07 crore from Tk117.27 crore a year earlier.
The banks’ advance to deposit ratio (ADR) stood at 72.29% last year, from 68.19% a year earlier.
BDBL’s deposit stood at Tk2764.28 crore at the end of December last year and the bank’s advance and loans stood at Tk1998.39 crore at the same time.
BDBL CEO Kazi Alamgir and bank director were present in the conference.
