New budget aimed at taming inflation: AL

Awami League (AL) General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Saturday said the main objective of the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 is to remove ongoing economic uncertainty and crisis and contain high inflation, reports BSS.

"The proposed budget is realistic and pro-people during the internal and global economic crisis," he told a press conference at AL's Bangabandhu Avenue central office. The press conference was arranged to give formal post-budget reaction from the party.

Quader said the aim of this budget is to gradually bring the country's economy back to the path of dynamic economic growth which existed before coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing wars in the world.

Welcoming the budget on behalf of AL, the party's general secretary said the proposed budget is compatible with the slogan of the AL's election manifesto 'Smart Bangladesh: Development is visible, employment will increase this time'.

Quader said in the last one and a half decades, under the leadership of the successful statesman Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has gained dignified status in the world as a fast growing economic power even amid the global and internal crises.

He said Bangladesh is now the 33rd largest economy in the world. Due to economic and social progress, the living standard of the people of Bangladesh is improving day by day, he added.

He said Bangladesh is now self-sufficient not only in rice but also in nutrition production. Bangladesh is progressing in all social and economic indicators, he added.

In 2005 during the BNP-Jamaat coalition government, over 40 per cent people were below the poverty line, he said.

With the continuous support of the people, the AL government has been able to reduce the poverty rate to 18.7 percent in just 14 years while extreme poverty level is now 5.6 per cent, he said.

He said the government and the central bank discouraged the import of less essential goods as soon as the Ukraine war started.

This has reduced imports by more than 15 per cent annually which has made it possible to maintain foreign exchange reserves for more than three months of imports as per international standards even during the crisis, he added.