Editorial
Economic goals largely on track
Political instability undermining further potential
A delegation from International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been on a visit to Bangladesh on account of approving the next tranche payment under Extended Credit Facility (ECF) loan worth US$1billion. From what has been stated it is clear that economic developments have broadly lived up to expectations despite uncertainties, particularly the global slowdown. There have been successes for the Bangladesh economy. Exports have picked up and despite alarm bells being rung, inward remittances have shown consistently strong growth. The country's foreign exchange reserve has not gone down but is on the rise. All this coupled with sound fiscal and monetary policies undertaken by the government have helped avoid any major hiccups for the economy as a whole.
The body has expressed satisfaction with the way the economy has been handled on mostly all fronts. The body has, however, cautioned over certain areas of concern. Of the several uncertainties highlighted, political instability by far remains the greatest hurdle to the economy. Unless confrontational politics is contained, there is serious suspicion whether Gross Development Product (GDP) growth of 6 per cent will be attained in the current fiscal.
These fears are supported by the recent study conducted by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce which estimates that for a single day of shutdown the economy loses Tk.1,600Cr. Indeed, the second largest hit sector is readymade garments, which accounts for about $19billion to our annual exports and represents 1.56 percent of the GDP. Trading including wholesale and retail markets representing 2.45% of the GDP loses Tk. 600Cr. per day due to forced shutdown. Surely, time has arrived for dialogue between contending political parties. Differences have to be ironed out across the negotiating table and not on the streets otherwise we stand to lose a lot more than we can hope to gain.
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