Bangladesh’s economy is facing a triangulation of three major problems caused by uncontrollable high inflation, rising pressure of government debt and declining growth, said the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Distinguished Fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya.
“The fiscal space of the government is also reducing due to failure of increase in tax mobilisation which is degrading some other indicators,” he said presenting the results of a survey by CPD and the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh at a policy dialogue titled "New Government, National Budget and People's Expectations" held at a hotel in the capital on Sunday (5 May).
“Upcoming budget should be addressing these three issues, which will be challenging for the government,” he added.
Debapriya Bhattacharya and also the convenor of the platform, said unless those issues are immediately addressed, it will affect the economy of the country post-LDC graduation.
“Inflation remains around 10%. It has held an adverse impact on life and livelihood of people by forcing them to reduce food and nonfood consumptions, savings, investment, education and health services,” he added.
Even if global inflation is reduced, the initiatives taken in this regard are not working in Bangladesh, the eminent economist said.
Presenting a keynote at the event Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said about 89% of people on social media platforms appreciate the budget-related initiatives of the current government, while 11% do not appreciate them.
However, about 64% of respondents of the study from Facebook users showed “zero” expectations from the government regarding the budget, while only 36% had expectations, further said the study.
The survey was conducted on the opinions of 2,249 respondents through the Google form and 8,048 social media responses and comments.
Politicians, policymakers, public representatives, economists and experts from the private sector also spoke at the event chaired by CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun.
