State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY2023-24 (First Reading)
Independent Review of
RBD
Bangladesh's Development
The backdrop
True, the Bangladesh Bank has taken a number of initiatives to address the emergent challenges.
While commendable and necessary, these have not gone far enough or all encompassing enough,
and at times the signals transmitted were rather contradictory.
Whilst the trade and current account balances have posted some improvements in the early months
of FY24, this has been primarily driven by drastic shortfalls in imports; in the backdrop of a dearth
in availability of foreign exchange, Bangladesh Bank's conscious and cautious policies to discourage
certain types of imports, and the high price of USD having negative impact on the demand side.
□ The improvement in trade and current account balances is coming at a cost though. The fall in
imports is likely to have a knock-on adverse impact on investment, employment, production and
GDP growth over the near to medium term future.
A number of targets set out in the USD 4.7 billion IMF support programme, including the amount of
gross (BPM6) and net forex reserves and move to a market-aligned exchange rate management, are
yet to be attained.
CPD (2023): State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY2023-24 (First Reading)
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