BD State of Economy in 2010

[eastwatch]

State of economy in 2010
Friday, 31 December 2010
Author / Source : UNB

Dhaka, Dec 30: Rising trend of inflation, fall in remittance inflow and infrastructural constraints did not give Bangladesh a chance to relax in the outgoing year (2010) although it has overcome the economic meltdown successfully. The economy this year, however, witnessed good performances in the fields of export earning and harvest of crops including boro and aman.

“The economic performance of the (outgoing) year is not so different from the previous year (2009),” said economist Dr Mirza Azizul Islam, a former adviser of the caretaker government.

Talking to the agency, he ruled out any possibility of achieving 6.7 percent GDP growth target for the current fiscal. Mirza Aziz said that the flow of remittance witnessed a sharp fall in the year 2010 and it is one of the worrying factors. “The remittance inflow decreased as a result of sliding trend of manpower export.” He said that like the previous years, infrastructural problem including energy and power crisis remained one of the disappointing aspects of the country’s economy this year.

He mentioned that the external aid disbursement has also slowed down during the year. Mirza Aziz said that the export was very good in the last 3-4 months although export earning witnessed a negative growth in the beginning of the year.

Apart from good harvest of boro and aman, government’s initiatives in the power sector were also appreciable, he said. Asked whether the GDP growth target of 6.7 in the current fiscal would be achievable, he said: “It is out of the question. It could be around 6 percent.”

Regarding the inflation rate, which is over 8 percent, he said there is hardly any macroeconomic instrument to control inflation. The government should take necessary steps to protect the marginal people from inflation.

Commenting on the overall situation of the capital market, the former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman said that the market is volatile and highly overpriced.
As part of calming down the ‘angry bull’, he said: “The government should offload the shares of the state owned enterprises (SoEs) as soon as possible.”

Mirza Aziz mentioned that increasing investment for achieving accelerated growth, ensuring food security and addressing the climate change issues will be the main challenges for the grand alliance government in the coming year. “The investment ratio to GDP stood at around 24 percent over the last 4-5 years and it should be taken to 30-32 percent for accelerated growth,” he said.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) director general Mustafa K Mujeri, while talking to the age, said that the year 2010 witnessed a mixed trend of economic activities.

He said there was a sign of pick up in the economic activities of the country as it has overcome the adverse effects of the global economic recession in some cases. At the same time, there was some sort of difficulty in the investment situation due to the existing energy and power crisis.

The import of capital goods and intermediary goods picked up with the association of the private sector.

 

[saleen_s7]

All this economics reports keeps contradicting each others. They seem to be missing important elements which gives us the whole picture. The fact of the matter is : rich keeps getting richer, and poor keeps getting poorer.
I really want to believe that our country's heading towards the right direction, but with the recent news reports this development stories seem like fairy tales.

 

[LongLiveBritian]

Ahhh I wish sami was here, but that is not the case these so called fairy tails are in my opinion going to happen but of course many people will denie this as BritishBangladeshi(banned) has said The economy will prosper.

BritishBangladeshi has said that the ban on sami was unfair but the ban on him was fair.

 

[somebozo]

In capitalism money is required to make money...as such the rich get richer and turns into an elite...

 

[eastwatch]

In capitalism money is required to make money...as such the rich get richer and turns into an elite...

You are right about the concept of capitalism. But, usually in the western countries, except probably in USA, the system is a kind of CONTROLLED capitalism. A Company is allowed to make as much profit as it can. But, then it has to pay taxes to the govt on the net profit it has earned. Individual incomes derived from salaries, dividends, bonus or others are also heavily taxed.

This tax money is spent to build social and physical infrastructures of the country. This is how the money is somewhat more equitably distributed among the populace. This is the reason how the living standard of an ordinary person in these countries is so high. This is how every one can afford most of the amenities unthinkable even for medium rich people in south asean countries.

Our taxation system should be overhauled so that it supports a controlled capitalism that can provide a better living standard for the ordinary population as well. It should be a system whereby not only rich, but also the poor gets richer.