Monetary policy stance under scanner

Every half a year, Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh and the country focal point of monetary policy, announces a Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) that articulates the country stance in terms of monetary policy and related macroeconomic management. While formulating the policy statement, the Bank assesses the global and domestic macroeconomic situation and the six monthly outlook.
This report attempts to have a deeper look into the last two monetary policy statements (H2 FY13 and H1 FY14 i.e. calendar year 2013) of Bangladesh Bank. The aim is to review these two policy statements from a macroeconomic standpoint and to make some presumptions about what the next monetary policy statement can be and should be. The next monetary policy statement would be announced in January 2014; FY14 H2.
The FY13H2 (Jan-June 2013) monetary policy posture was designed in such a way that would ensure the government's growth target while keeping the inflation rate contained as much as possible. With a view to attain this, the Bank ensured sufficient credit envelope for productive investments. To minimize the risks in achieving the output growth due to the uncertainties around the global economy, BB reduced all repo rates by 50 basis points. BB also revised its monetary program with a broad money growth target of 17.7% in June 2013 compared to the FY13 H1 MPS target of 16.5%, and a new private sector growth supporting envelope of 18.5% in June 2013 compared with the original program of 18%. BB created further space in its monetary program in case there is greater lending appetite for productive purposes in FY13 H2. This 'balanced' monetary policy also aimed to minimize excessive volatility of the exchange rate. These objectives involve trade-offs and the balance between inflation containment and growth.
The monetary standpoint in FY14 H1 (July-Dec 2013) targeted to bring average inflation down to 7% (using the 1995-96 base). It aimed to ensure credit growth to stimulate inclusive economic growth. Its specific aim is to contain reserve money growth to 15.5% and broad money growth to 17.2% by December 2013. Private sector credit growth was figured into 15.5% for December 2013 and 16.5% in June 2014. The monetary stance also assumed government borrowing from the banking sector to remain around FY14 budgetary figure of 260 billion taka. The decision of the previous MPS regarding repo rates and reserve requirements ratios remain unchanged. Finally, the monetary policy stance aimed to preserve the country's external sector stability. It anticipated to further build-up in foreign reserves in FY14 though at a more moderate pace than FY13. Moreover, the Bank would continue to support a market-based exchange rate while seeking to avoid excessive foreign exchange rate volatility.
Deeper look into the macro-economic
performance (Jan-Dec 2013)
Growth scenario
In FY13 H2, the Central Bank's growth stance was characterized by placing sufficient accommodation for cautious output growth scenario. Central to this stand was ensuring productive investment supported through handsome credit envelope. This would ultimately help realize the government's FY13 real GDP growth target and simultaneously confining the average inflation rate within the targeted level of 7.5%. Addressing the risks arose from global economic uncertainty repo rates were cut by 50 basis points. Target of private sector credit growth was revised to 18.5% from the original amount of 18%. Furthermore, the Bank carried on encouraging banks to use the space provided for the private sector growth in productive rather than speculative purposes.
The FY14 H1 growth stance was to ensuring credit growth to stimulate inclusive economic growth while bring down the average inflation rate to 6.0-6.5%. The space to private sector credit growth was kept to 15.5%. The Central Bank's outlook for FY14 suggested that the output growth will be around 6.2% - average figure of the last ten fiscal years, though in dynamic economies, average of past years growth rate cannot be a good estimator for future growth projections. However, BB announced to remain flexible about its prediction and decided to update its forecast from time to time so that all factors that develop may come into consideration. Repo rates and reserve requirements will remain unchanged after the 50 basis point cut as they proposed.
In recent years, Bangladesh has been a frequently cited example of good GDP growth (Table 2.1.1). In FY11 the economy witnessed its highest ever growth of 6.71%. However, from the very next year the growth started to take a downward turn and the provisional figure for FY13 GDP growth was only 6.03%. In the FY14 the projected figure in the national budget was 7.2%. Bangladesh Bank predicts the growth to be 6.2%. Low dose supportive monetary policy could not of much help to attain any near to targeted growth but seemingly they could contain upward trend of inflation.

	FY11	FY12R	FY13P	FY14E
Actual Growth (%)	6.71	6.23	6.03	7.2
SFYP Target (%)	6.71	7.00	7.20	7.6

The basis for BB's growth prediction noticeably lower than that of the budget expectation is caused by probable poor performance of agriculture sector (Table 2.1.2) as the trend suggests. In FY11 the growth of Agriculture Sector was 5.1% and it came down to 3.1% in the following year; but in FY13, the growth rate was extremely downward - only 2.2%. In the growth trend the contribution of agriculture to GDP, in the meantime, narrowed down. Though the industry sector has shown a good growth (and an increased share of GDP) - better than that of FY12 (8.9%) and four-year average is 8.1%, the fall of service sector from its long-term trend of 6% to 5.7% has offset it to make the total GDP growth slow.

Table 2.1.2: Major components of GDP and their growth performance, FY10-13

Sectors	FY11	FY12R	FY13P
Share	Growth	Share	Growth	Share	Growth
Agriculture	20.0	5.1	19.4	3.1	18.7	2.2
Industry	30.4	8.2	31.1	8.9	32.0	9.0
Services	49.6	6.2	49.5	6.0	49.3	5.7

Source: National Accounts Statistics, BBS; [P = Provisional, R = Revised]

The slow GDP growth can also be attributed to subdued private sector investment outlook, and political tensions and hostilities in the run up to the tenth parliamentary elections. In the event, during the couple of months the country is passing through an unusually difficult and turbulent period due to prolonged and repeated general strikes and associated political atrocities across the country, including major cities like Dhaka and Chittagong.
The level of investment is a driver of real GDP growth. Total investment crossed the level of 25% of GDP in FY11, and further increased to 26.5% in FY12. Although the total investment in FY13 has been slightly increased up to 26.8%, it is shorter than that of the government's Sixth Five Year Plan (SFYP) target for FY13 (29.6%). There is probability of this shortfall to be widened further in FY14 due primarily to shortfalls in private investment. Increased flow of private sector credit in FY13 H2 could not help ease the situation. What it says, only by managing monetary policy instrument growth process may not be influenced. Complementary fiscal measures and identifying economic governance indicates to improve need to be linked to monetary policy to succeed.

	FY09	FY10	FY11	FY12	FY13	FY14
Total Investment Actual (%)	24.4	24.4	25.2	26.5	26.8	--
Total Investment SFYP Target (%)	--	24.4	24.7	26.8	29.6	31.0
Private Investment Actual (%)	19.7	19.4	19.5	20.0	19.0	--
Private Investment SFYP Target (%)	--	19.4	19.5	22.2	22.7	23.8
Public Investment Actual (%)	4.7	5.0	5.6	6.5	7.9	--
Public Investment SFYP Target (%)	--	5.0	5.3	6.6	6.9	7.2

Table 2.1.3 shows that total public sector investment exceeded the SFYP target for almost every year. The increase in public sector investment was particularly higher in FY13 but the private sector investment is quite lower (19.0%) than the SFYP target (22.7%). Therefore, private investment in Bangladesh needs to rise significantly to support the projected GDP growth target set. There is something more than the monetary policy that can boost private sector investment which may be fiscal policy, economic governance issue etc.
The depressing growth is also supported by the fact that overall import growth slowed to around 1.6%. Imports dropped recently against the backdrop of lower private investment which may partly be attributable to the uncertainties associated with political tensions ahead of the next general elections. However, import payments during FY14 (July-Oct) is higher (11,555 Million USD) than that of during the same period of FY13 (10,750 Million USD), which generally serves as a positive outlook for future imports. Continued rise in exports and buoyant remittance inflows should help sustain import growth in the coming months although domestic investment outlook remains subdued

	FY11	FY12	FY13	FY14 (July-Oct)	FY13 (July-Oct)
Export receipts (f.o.b.)	23008.0	23989.0	26566.0	9627	8233
Growth (%)		4.3	10.7
Import payments (f.o.b.)	32527.0	33309.0	33576.0	11555	10750
Growth (%)		2.4	0.8

Sluggish global growth in 2013 (2.9%) may also contribute to the slower output growth in Bangladesh. The projected growth in 2013 for the Advanced Economies, Euro Area, USA also were lower than that of in 2012 (Table 2.1.5). The Government has set a real GDP growth target of 7.2% for FY14. However given the on-going hanged on global economic slowdown and also due to the recent political adversaries, that can contribute to the slowdown of the domestic demand, there are significant downside risks for Bangladesh's export and remittance growth, and therefore for GDP growth target. But the debating issue is where we can settle down with the attainable growth figure? How far the monetary policy can push-up the growth rate that could be enunciated by the next monetary policy statement? Or the 'would be monetary statement' would only cling to last 10 years' brute average figure?

World Economies	Real GDP
		Projection
	2012	2013	2014
World	3.2	2.9	3.6
Advanced Economies	1.5	1.2	2.0
Other Advanced Economies	1.9	2.3	3.1
Euro Area	-0.6	-0.4	1.0
USA	2.8	1.6	2.6
Emerging and Developing Economies	4.9	4.5	5.1
China	7.7	7.6	7.3
India	3.2	3.8	5.1
Other Developing Asia*	6.3	6.0	6.5

*Other Developing Asia comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Fiji, Kiribati, Lao P.D.R., Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
2.2 Inflation scenario
In the national budget of fiscal year 2013-14 (FY14), it was anticipated to tie down the general inflation rate around 7%. Base year 1995-96 was used to estimate this figure. When converted into 2005-06 base equivalents, it was estimated to be within the realm of 6.0-6.5%. In the previous fiscal year the budget target was 7.5% in line with the base year 1995-96 (equivalent figure with the new base will lie somewhere between 6.5-7.0%).
In MPS FY13 H2 (Jan-June 2013), it was articulated that the FY13 budget target was attainable with some degrees of risks. The anticipation was later proven true - subduing the risks, the average inflation figured at 6.78% at the end of the fiscal year. The point-to-point figure was, however, higher - 8.05%. The MPS FY14 H1 (July-Dec 2013) predicts an opposite scenario. Owing to a number of reasons, the budget figure will be hard to reach due to occasional nationwide strikes and increased demand from possible wage increase which will pull the inflation rate to an uprising trend.
Considering all the relevant factors - both internal and external -FY14 H1 targeted to keep the inflation rate down to 6.0-6.5% (using the 2005-06 base), while it attempted to ensure credit growth to stimulate inclusive economic growth. However, available data for the first five month of FY14 does not give any indication for this target to be attained. The point-to-point data, (using the base year 2005-06) of all the five months, have figured at 7 plus numbers. However, for the last three months the general inflation rates seem somewhat stable and being close to 7.0% (the first two months rate was 7.85% and 7.39% respectively). The prolonged political instability characterized by nationwide strikes and shutdowns have created a huge supply side disruption outcome of which is high rate of food inflation (some 8% plus figures with increasing trend for the last three months). The low and stable rate of non-food inflation rate, in fact, is the main contributing factor to stabilize the general inflation rate around 7%. (Table 2.2.1)

	FY11	FY12	FY13	FY14
Jul’13	Aug’13	Sep’13	Oct’13	Nov’13
General	10.91	8.69	6.78	7.85	7.39	7.13	7.03	7.15
Food	14.11	7.72	5.22	8.14	8.09	7.93	8.38	8.55
Non-Food	6.21	10.21	9.17	7.40	6.35	5.94	5.02	5.08

Recently, two important incidences have occurred that would surely have brought about demand-pull high inflation by increasing the aggregate demand. First of them is the 20% increase in the salaries of all the government staff through Dearness Allowance and the latter is the increase in the minimum wage of garment sector workers. However, this effect was neutralized, to some degree, by decreased (and declining) remittance inflow due to some shocks in the major labor markets.
The Independent Evaluation Group of World Bank has forecasted the inflation rate to be 7.01% in December 2013. This prediction is probably getting wrong as the shutdowns and strikes are to be continued and the interrupted supply chain does not seem to be restored shortly. The decreasing trend from July to September has already ceased and the increasing trend resumes.
Moreover, according to IMF appreciation or depreciation of Indian Rupee may also have an impact on inflation in Bangladesh as because depreciation of the Rupee reduces the cost of imports from India and vice-versa. It seems sensible because in FY13, 16.3% of total import payments of Bangladesh were done with India, which was the second highest. Therefore, appreciation or depreciation of Indian Rupee may have an impact on cost of the imported products. In FY11, the Indian Rupee was appreciated by 3.78% and in that period Bangladesh faced double digit inflation of 10.91% but in the next FY the Indian Rupee was depreciated by 19.38% and corresponding inflation in Bangladesh in that FY was down to 8.69%. In FY13 Indian Rupee was depreciated by 6.75% and the inflation in Bangladesh in FY13 was 6.78%. All these figures point toward a positive correlation between appreciation/depreciation of Indian Rupee with inflation in Bangladesh. Therefore, inflation is not only a domestic phenomenon and may prove insensitive to monetary policy anticipated.
If the political situation continues to go in line with the recent trend, it is for sure that the second half of FY14 (Jan-June, 2014) will witness a worse scenario of inflation. Although for securing a handsome growth some degree of inflation must be endured, the monetary policy must oversee that it does not cross the tolerance level.
2.3 Broad Money growth scenario
During FY10-FY11, broad money (M2) expansion exceeded the targets set under BBs MPS by significant margins helping fuel the inflationary pressure in the economy. But after the adoption of tighter monetary policy stance at the beginning of 2012, liquidity expansion started to decelerate and was essentially limited to levels targeted under the MPSs announced by BB.
To manage inflationary pressure Bangladesh Bank started implementation of tightened monetary measures in FY12. The results were declined inflation and declined output growth. From the concerns over this slowdown in growth BB cut 50 basis point rate in January 2013 with the aim of influencing bank lending rates downwards. This helped BB to achieve its monetary targets in FY13. The actual broad money growth in FY13 was 16.7% which was close to the average MPS target for FY13 (17.1%) but slightly above than the SFYP target (16.0%). Broad money growth is in line with the target mainly due to high Net Foreign Assets (NFA) growth (Table 2.3.1).

	FY 11	FY 12	FY 13 (P)	FY 14	FY13 (up to Oct’12)	FY14 (up to Oct’13)
Broad Money (Billion BDT)	4405.2	5171.1	6035.1		5511.6	6403.2
Growth (%)	21.3	17.4	16.7		19.5	16.2
Broad Money Growth (%) SFYP Target	20.0	16.0	16.0	16.0
Net Foreign Assets (Billion BDT)	705.7	788.2	1133.8		900.6	1222.7
Growth (%)	5.2	11.7	43.9		27.8	35.8
Net Foreign Assets Growth (%) SFYP Target	-2.3	10.2	13.7	15.6
Private Sector Credit (Billion BDT)	3407.1	4079.0	4521.6		4200.4	4665.5
Growth (%)	25.8	19.7	10.8		19.9	11.1
Private Sector Credit Growth (%) SFYP Target	27.0	20.0	18.0	18.0

A closer look at the trend in Table (2.3.1) since FY 2012 shows falling growth rates of both M2 as well as private sector credit since 2012. For Private Sector Credit, it can be seen that both the MPS target (17.1%) and SFYP target (18.0%) in FY13 were higher than the actual growth (10.8%). It is remarkable that, although the broad money growth is in line with the targeted value private sector credit growth slows down sharply in recent months. This indicates that the decelerating trend of private sector credit growth is not because of liquidity constraint since there is sufficient supply of money (M2). The decline in private sector credit is primarily attributable to lower credit demand associated with slower domestic economic activity in recent months.
Apart from this, it is a matter of debate whether there is any positive correlation between private sector credit growth and private investment. During FY09 to FY11, there was a steady acceleration of private credit but average private investment was 19.5% (Table 2.3.1). In FY11 and FY13 private sector credit growth were the highest (25.8%) and the lowest (10.8%) respectively but private investment during the same period did not take place accordingly. This indicates that, private sector credit growth did not contribute to corresponding investment growth (the reasons to be investigated thoroughly). Credit growth as a monetary tool may not also spur investment growth which points to the limitation of using only monetary policy to stimulate growth.
Anyway, in this FY14 H1, BB aims to contain broad money growth to 17.2% in order to bring average inflation down to 7%. Data for the FY14 H1 (up to Oct,13) shows that broad money growth already reached to 16.2% which seems to be on track to reach the MPS target of 17.2% in December 2013. For the next half of the FY14, BB could follow its current monetary policy stance to support the targeted growth and also to manage the inflation in the post-election period.
2.4 Government borrowing scenario
Government borrowing is very important for coordination between fiscal and monetary policy. Limiting government borrowing from the banking sector is essential for achieving inflation targets and providing the space for banks to lend to the private sector. Government borrowing from the banking system and the external source has stayed more or less manageable over the last four years due to balanced fiscal and monetary policy. It remained below 5% of GDP which depict a prudent and restrained fiscal management by the Government. Total borrowing as % of GDP was 3.77% in FY06 which came down to 1.96% of GDP in FY13- much less borrowing than any time before.

	Government Borrowing (in Crore Taka)
	Banking Sector	*NBDCs	*NSD	Total
July, 2013	114693.3	249.7	65259.0	180202.0
August, 2013	110298.5	249.8	65950.8	176499.1
September, 2013	109915.5	249.7	66731.5	176896.7

During July-Sep of FY14 government borrowing from the banking sector shows a decreasing trend (even in election year) indicating less risk of crowding-out for the private sector credit (Table 2.4.1). Moreover, recent initiative by the BB of removing the lock-in period for foreign investors results inflow of foreign funds into domestic debt instruments. Thus, some borrowers switched from costlier banking financing to lower cost overseas financing and this also reduces the private sector crowding-out risk to a certain extent. Therefore, for the next half of FY14, after the election period is over it is expected that the environment for investment will be improved and both public and private investment demand may sharply rise. Hence, Bangladesh Bank could allow more credit to public sector to invest more in the post-election period for higher economic growth as there are new foreign currency borrowing facilities in the market for private sector. But by then political upheaval must be cooled down.
2.5 Exchange rate policy
During the last half (H2) of FY13 and the first half (H1) of FY14 that is for the calendar year in progress, the monetary policy stance of the Central Bank was more or less the same and was contractionary in stance. Though adopted a floating (market-based) exchange rate system, it has continued its effort to minimize volatility of the exchange rate. A balanced monetary policy was aimed where objectives involved trade-offs and the balance between BB's instruments. Moreover, the targets were reviewed regularly.

	FY11	FY12	FY13	FY14
Jul’13	Aug’13	Sep’13	Oct’13	Nov’13
Period Average	71.22	79.21	77.75	77.75	77.75	77.75	77.75	77.75
Period End	74.15	81.82	77.76	77.75	77.75	77.75	77.75	77.75
Appreciation/Depreciation	-6.34	-9.38	5.21	0.02	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00

In FY13, Taka experienced a good amount of appreciation (stronger economy) after two successive years of sharp depreciation (the five fiscal years before FY11 had gone through some mild appreciation and depreciation). From the beginning of FY14 till the last month the amount of appreciation or depreciation was virtually 0.0% - a rare event in the recent past. During this period the exchange rate of Taka per USD has been stabilized at 77.75%.
The record amount of foreign exchange reserve maintained for a sustained period has helped the Central Bank manage the float. As of November 30, the foreign exchange reserve was 17.1 billion USD (equivalent to five and half a month's import payments). However, a decreasing trend in the remittance inflow is already discernible and it may affect the reserve of foreign exchange which consequently might have an impact on the exchange rate.
For the next half of the current fiscal year (Jan-June 2014), it seems the central bank will stick to its present stance of keeping the exchange rate stable. A stable exchange rate will ensure proper planning for both the exporters and importers and have a positive impact on the overall economy.
2.6 Call money rate policy
Call money rates have declined gradually from 19.66 in January, 2012 to 7.03 in November, 2013 and average retail interest rate spreads have fallen below 5%. It is signaling further easing of liquidity pressures in the banking system. At the retail level both deposit and lending rates fell in FY13 H2 and since interest rate spreads have on average fallen - from 5.60% in June 2012 to 4.95% in October 2013 - we can infer that lending rates have fallen faster than deposit rates. Domestic lending rates have fallen due to lower cost of funds for banks, lower demand for credit as well as due to increasing competition from overseas lenders whose lending rates are in the single digits. Decreasing trend of call money rate indicates not only the available supply of money in the market but also lower demand for domestic credit. Like the previous years Bank rate is fixed at 5.00%. If present policy is not changed, this trend is likely to be continued in the FY14 H2.
3 The ensuing monetary policy stance for
FY14 H2 (Jan-June 2014)
Taking into considerations all the discussions above, Bangladesh Bank's current monetary policy stance could be continued for FY14 H2. However, the upcoming monetary policy stance should be targeted achieving higher economic growth rather managing mainly inflation. It means that, the broad money growth (M2), inflation, reserve money growth, private sector credit growth, public sector credit growth, government borrowing etc. all these should be targeted to achieve the growth of 7.2% and not to achieve the target to bring the inflation down to 7%. If the growth is higher then, some inflation could be accepted. From this perspective, to attain the output growth 7.2% or somewhere, up-to 6.5-7.0% (using the 2005-06 base) inflation could be accepted and the broad money growth target could be around 17.2-17.5%. Besides this, the upcoming monetary policy should offset the liquidity pressures created by expected large wage increases across the public sector, the RMG sector and its impact on all other sectors of the economy. As it is expected that during the post-election period the investment environment would be improved, both the private sector and public sector credit growth target could be increased a bit. During the election period the exchange rate could be same as before but should be under close monitoring and adjusted according to the situation in the post-election era.
4 Looming risks/challenges
There are a number of risks/challenges underlying to achieve the monetary policy targets for the second half of FY 2014 (FY14 H2). These are conceptualized as internal and external challenges. They are:
Internal challenges
l Ongoing political uncertainty/adversary, following recent general strikes and associated hostilities, pose a great threat to achieving the targeted real GDP growth
l The disruptions in transportation and normal pace of activities due to political exigencies have had an enormous toll on the economy. In particular, private sector demand has slowed down across the board starting with transportation, construction and other service related activities like hotels and restaurants and wholesale and retail trade. Domestic trade (retail and wholesale in particular) will also be impacted by a sharp fall in consumer demand for all kinds of durable and non-durable purchases.
l General investment climate and competitiveness of the economy is another challenge for Bangladeshi economy. High priority needs to be given in improving the business climate in Bangladesh for boosting private investment. At more than 1400 days, the time required for enforcing a contract in Bangladesh is the highest among its comparators and ranked at 182 out of 183 countries surveyed in 2012.

l Limited access to serviced land, power and gas shortages, labor market rigidity and yet red tape have all been binding constraints to investment in Bangladesh.
l Despite some deceleration in inflationary pressure, the level of inflation still remains high and at times there is upward pressure. With large wage increases expected across all sectors of the economy including the public sector, wage-push inflationary pressures may build up and also need to be contained.
External challenges
l Global growth is an important factor for growth in Bangladesh. European Union is the largest destination of Bangladeshi exports, primarily due to RMG products. Therefore, the growth trend and also the import demand from this region as well as other advanced economies will become an important external challenge for Bangladesh.
l According to IMF, cancellation of GSP may slow down the GDP growth of Bangladesh by 1.8% point. Bangladesh's economic growth, exports, exchange rate and foreign currency reserves will come under pressure if the European Union cancels the trade benefits for the country's failure to improve labor standards. A report on "Growth to slow if Europe scraps trade privileges: IMF" published in the Daily Star on December 9 2013 states that, "The IMF said Bangladesh's GDP growth could decline by up to 1.8% points in the first year after the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is withdrawn, as activity would severely be affected in the garment sector. The loss in the real economic growth will come down to 0.6% point in the second year of the shock. Exports of goods in terms of GDP will decline 2.2% points in the first year, 2.1 points in the second year and 2.2% points within three to five years in the event of cancellation of the GSP. The current account balance will also be hit: going down by 1.1% points in terms of GDP in the first two years each and 1% point within three to five years."
l Inflation is highly correlated to food as well as fuel prices. Therefore, commodity prices in the international markets will also remain as an external challenge and need to be closely monitored.
l Bangladesh must strengthen its economic-diplomacy to unlock the closed Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) markets and open new ones if it wants to regain momentum in sending workers abroad and help sustain the growth in remittances in the coming years.
................................................................................
Prof. Shamsul Alam is Member, General Economics Division (GED), Planning Commission. Dr. Alam participated and led the preparation of the Perspective Plan of Bangladesh (2010-21): Making Vision 2021 a Reality, Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-15) and The National Sustainable Development Strategy of Bangladesh (2011-2021), amongst others.
GED officials Umme Salma, Nepoleon Dewan, Sheikh Moinul Islam Moin and Shimul Sen helped prepare this policy brief.
E-mail: [email protected]