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The government is gunning for an 8.5 per cent GDP growth next fiscal year in the hope the economy would be springing back to a higher expansion trajectory once the coronavirus outbreak has been quelled.
The government is expecting a V-shaped recovery in fiscal 2020-21 after its hopes of pulling off an 8.2 per cent gross domestic product output this fiscal year were shattered because of the pandemic, said an official of the finance ministry.
A V-shaped recovery involves a sharp decline in economic output followed by a sharp rise back to its previous peak.
The International Monetary Fund also projected a V-shaped recovery for Bangladesh, saying the GDP growth would be 2 per cent this year, the lowest since 1988, before recording its highest-ever expansion of 9.5 per cent in 2021.
The new growth target was disclosed to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday in a meeting with a finance ministry team led by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal at the premier’s official residence.
The next budget and the implementation of various stimulus packages announced by the government to pull the economy out of the wreckage thanks to the public health crisis were also discussed at the meeting.
An 8.5 per cent GDP growth target is within the sight of the economy as the stunning collapse this fiscal year was not for any fundamental reason but a public health emergency, the official said.
“So, once the crisis is over, the economy will charge ahead in full steam as in the past,” he added.
Bangladesh clocked the highest economic growth in Asia in 2019.
Both the government and the central bank have so far declared 18 stimulus packages worth Tk 95,619 crore to tackle the economic fallout from the pandemic. The packages are equivalent to 3.5 per cent of the country’s GDP.
(TDS)
