Dwaipayan Barua

The government plans to set an ambitious target of using foreign aid worth Tk 88,024 crore for development projects in the next fiscal year as external assistance has piled up.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downsized its projection about the Bangladesh’s GDP growth in the current fiscal year of 2020-21, considering the second wave of Covid pandemic and fresh lockdown that restricted economic activities.

The government has revised down the GDP growth projection to 6.1 per cent for 2020-21, the second revision this fiscal year, reflecting the devastating impacts of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic on the battered economy.

The government has already provided seasonal assistance to about 10 lakh people living below the poverty line and will expand such social protection programmes to curb the adverse effects of any future economic shock, according to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

There has been a sharp fall in delivery of imported goods from the Chittagong port in the last six days since the countrywide lockdown was imposed on April 14 as importers are not taking the deliveries timely.

The first nine months of the current fiscal year of 2020-21 saw slow implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) with only 41.92 per cent of the total outlay spent till March while development spending declined 3.27 per cent year-on-year.

The World Bank has agreed to provide $500 million to Bangladesh in additional financing to buy Covid-19 vaccines, but set some conditions regarding the procurement of the shots.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reversed Bangladesh’s steady trend of poverty reduction which had continued over the past two decades, according to a new report of the World Bank.

Economists have suggested that the government open a hotline service through which ultra-poor people facing food crisis during “lockdown” can communicate their sufferings and the government can take prompt steps to get food to them.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday indicated that the government may consider reducing corporate tax rates for listed firms in the upcoming budget.

Despite taking aggressive measures to import rice in the last three months, the government has so far failed to replenish the country’s depleting grain stocks.

The International Monetary Fund has raised its projection for the economic growth of Bangladesh to 5 per cent for 2021, up from 4.4 per cent it forecast in October.

World Bank in its latest twice-a-year regional update has raised question whether remittance flow in the South Asian countries has really increased.

Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) may grow by as high as 5.6 per cent in the current fiscal year, subject to three factors, said the World Bank yesterday.

Exporters and importers are apprehending prolonged delays in shipments as efforts so far have failed to dislodge a massive container vessel that continues to choke traffic in both directions along the Suez Canal.

The government yesterday approved the import of 50,000 tonnes of rice from India in order to increase the country’s food stock and control spiralling prices.

The government has increased the allocation for its Money for Work and Test Relief (TR) programmes by 81.25 percent for the current fiscal year to revitalise a pandemic-hit rural economy and provide money to people through development of rural infrastructure.

The government’s plan to use foreign exchange reserves to bankroll infrastructure projects may face difficulty in the current fiscal year as rising imports will leave little leeway for making such lending.

Within a year of stepping into container feeder vessels operation between Chattogram and two regional hub ports, Karnaphuli Ltd is going to buy four more ships to expand its footprint in the region.

Traders in Chattogram’s Khatunganj incurred direct financial losses of around Tk 514.38 crore last year solely for waterlogging, estimated a study made public yesterday.