Finance Minister AMA Muhith formally affirmed Saturday his doubt about achieving the targeted growth of the gross domestic product (GDP), set earlier for the current fiscal year (FY '15), because of setbacks the economy is suffering from the ongoing political violence.
"Even in December, I was fully hopeful about reaching 7.2 per cent GDP growth in the current fiscal. But now I am highly doubtful about reaching the target," he told reporters, as the country largely remained blockade-bound for over a month in a row.
Mr Muhith, visibly irate over his economic arithmetic being upset, dismissed the opposition political activities as "anti-nation" and "anti-state".
"What BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is doing has no link with politics rather she is performing the acts of terrorism. She is destroying the country and her activities are totally destructive to the nation," said the minister.
He, eventually, left the matter of high considerations to, what he said, sensible people in the BNP party with the hope that they would realise it and move away from such actions.
"What is happening in the name of politics is entirely enmity to the nation," said Mr Muhith, adding that it hampers the economic progress of the country severely.
"We set the GDP growth target at 7.3 per cent for the current fiscal. But we are not sure how much of it we can achieve as the economy is being severely battered by the BNP-sponsored non-stop destructive programmes," he said in his briefing to the press on the latest state of economy.
Although the impact of hartal is not significant in Dhaka, the minister noted, it severely affects activities in districts -- far away from the centre of politico-administrative controls.
"Disconnection of the districts will be dangerous for the economy. It is the most alarming thing. We will have to keep the districts functional," said the finance minister -- appearing nonplussed over the developments.
He made a frank admission that the overall economic management is passing through a severe strain.
"It seems we are now travelling on a radar-less ship," said the Mr Muhith.
The finance minister was addressing a press conference at his secretariat office on the overall socioeconomic progress of the country as well as macroeconomic situation during the tenure of the present Awami League government.
He also presented a comparative analysis of various socioeconomic indicators obtained between the 2001-2006 BNP-Jamaat alliance tenure and that of 2009-2013Awami League government and the progress made during the last one year since the January 5 general election that proved to be the trigger for a train of troubles.
Mr Muhith pointed out that Bangladesh successfully managed the macroeconomic stability during the period of his government with a steady 6-plus GDP growth, robust export performance, rising remittance and buoyant foreign-exchange reserves.
The per-capita income has doubled to US$ 1190.
But, the trajectory of growth is being hampered greatly due to which he said the violent political programme unleashed by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.
Khaleda Zia, who leads the 20-party alliance, called an indefinite blockade on Jan 5, the first anniversary of the 2014 national polls that her party sat out.
Asked whether the government has any assessment about the losses incurred everyday due to political violence, the minister replied in the negative but said that they would make the assessment in its next quarterly review meeting which will be held in March.
Replying to another query regarding any extra-budgetary allocation for law-enforcing agencies to tackle the situation, the minister also replied in the negative. He hinted that expenditure in this regard had already been increased.
Accusing BNP of destroying the economy, Muhith said the party always called destructive programmes whenever the country reached the threshold of development.
"This time they even did not spare some essential sectors out of the purview of the hartal, which is very much anti-national," he added.
Refuting the statistics about the losses claimed by different trade organisations due to the unrest, Mr Muhith said all this is perception-based.
Replying to a question, the finance minister said he does not know when the political deadlock will come to an end.
"Maybe, one week. But I don't know, rather I want to know from you (journalists)," he said.
He said the centralised system of development is not fit for Bangladesh due to its big population.
"The country is tantamount to 64 countries as its population size is big," the finance minister said.
He said Bangladesh is a unique country where economy has been growing with fast disappearances of income inequality in society.
He said his government's vision is to expand the size of the budget as without large-sized budget expected development cannot take place.
The finance minister said Bangladesh's maize production has immense potential for export market.
The government wants to make shipment of 2.0 million tonnes of maize shortly.
The conference was also attended, among others, by Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed, Bank and Financial Institution Division Secretary Dr M Aslam Alam, ERD Secretary Mesbah Uddin and IRD Secretary and NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman
Replying to a volley of questions, Bank and Financial Institutions Division Secretary Dr M Aslam said the classified loans from the state-owned commercial banks increased faster than that of the private commercial banks.
"I think the quality of loans disbursed by the state-owned commercial banks was below standards. These loans later turned classified," he told the press meet.
The Economic Relations Division Secretary, Md Mejbahuddin, informed that the commitment for foreign aid had been satisfactory up to January.
He said donors and development partners committed providing Bangladesh US$1.8 billion during July-January period against $ 1.1 billion in same period a year before.
"Disbursement is also satisfactory, up to January," he said, adding that the government has a target of receiving $6.0 billion foreign aid this fiscal year against $5.5 billion.
mzrbd@yahoo.com
Muhith fears non-attainment of GDP growth target for FY \\\'15
FE Report | Published: February 08, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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