Govt determined to build a $1 trillion economy by 2034, he says

The following is a recap of those major stories as covered by Star Business

Bangladesh has emerged from successive economic shocks with remarkable resilience and is now well placed to benefit from a gradual recovery in global demand, according to HSBC Chief Asia Economist Frederic Neumann.

Bangladesh’s economy is expected to grow by 4.4 percent in the current fiscal year 2026-27, supported by easing global headwinds and domestic economic reforms, according to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Limited.

For more than seven decades, multilateral development finance has driven global development by improving a number of indicators.

Four habits appear to have been defining budget-making in Bangladesh for decades, regardless of who headed the finance ministry.

The World Bank has warned that Bangladesh’s distressed banking sector remains the biggest obstacle to the government’s ambition of becoming a trillion-dollar economy by 2034.

Keep the budget in line with ground realities.

The world is facing growing economic uncertainty. Rising energy prices and supply shortages are pushing up costs and straining economies.

Bangladesh’s economy has crossed the half-a-trillion-dollar mark for the first time in fiscal year 2025-26, provisional data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics showed, as better performance in agriculture and services helped regain pace after a sluggish previous year.

GDP growth picks up to 4.14% in FY26

Finance minister inherited a ruptured economy. Now comes the harder part -- fixing it

Rising fuel and transport costs continue to push up the prices of essential goods, the independent think-tank said

Money-printing, or monetary expansion, is often described in a way that makes it sound as if the government runs a printing press.

Recently, Fitch Ratings observed that Bangladesh’s economic risks have increased, prompting a downgrade of the country’s sovereign outlook from “stable” to “negative.”

Despite achieving healthy economic growth over the past decade, Bangladesh’s economy is now showing signs of strain due to persistent inflation and slowing private investment, exposing underlying weaknesses, experts said at an event yesterday.

The government has created a five-year plan that aims to turn Bangladesh into a trillion-dollar economy by 2034 and create 1 crore jobs by 2030, driven by an upsurge in investment.

The government’s ambition to build a trillion-dollar economy by 2034 will remain out of reach without urgent reforms in banking, taxation, and business costs, as the country’s current economic structure is too weak to sustain the level of growth required, a leading economist said.

When Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on Bangladesh to “negative,” it attributed the downgrade to the Middle East conflict, external financing pressures, and existing economic vulnerabilities.

The new BNP government, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, took office on February 17, 2026. It inherited a fragile and unstable economy.