Kazi Zahidul Hasan :The performance of national economy was ‘so far so good’ in 2015 with most macro indicators remained stable, economists said on Thursday.They said, despite political turmoil early in 2015 that adversely affected transport services, exports, and private investment, economic growth remained stable because of brisk domestic demand, boosted by higher worker remittances, private sector wages and public investment. “Bangladesh economy was stable path in 2015 with most macro indicators remained positive. Dr Zahid Hussain, lead economist, World Bank’s Bangladesh country office, told The New Nation on Thursday.He said, despite political turmoil in the first three months of 2015, the performance of national economy was fairly satisfactory thanks to declining inflation and lending rates, rising import and foreign reserves, contained fiscal deficit and stable public debt and exchange rate. “The monetary policy took a cautious stance in the year which seemed to be effective and on the other hand, the fiscal policy remained as usual with deficit financing target remained reasonable,” he observed. Dr Zahid Hussain, however, said that although a positive near-term macro-economic outlook prevailed, growth acceleration faced challenge due mainly to lack of necessary investment, unsatisfactory ADP implementation and revenue collection and infrastructure bottleneck,” he noted.Bangladesh economy continues to grow at an average rate of 6.0 per cent for the last few years. But, such a growth does not match with its long-term economic vision. Economic growth remained stagnant due to lack of necessary public and private investment. “The country’s investment scenario remained bleak in 2015 due to lack of necessary infrastructure, regulatory reforms and service delivery by the departments concerned. Such a scenario was undermining the growth prospect and business climate of the country. So, the foremost challenge remains for the national economy next year is to improve business and investment climate,” he noted. “The performance of the national economy was so far so good in 2015 with most macro-economic indicators remained stable throughout the year,” Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, a noted economist of the country, told The New Nation on Thursday. He said the growth of the national economy was largely tepid due to lack of conducive political and investment climate. “An investment inertia prevailed throughout the year as the government has failed to ensure necessary infrastructure for the investors as well as local enterprises. At the same time, it also failed to ensure good governance in both regulatory bodies and banks, therefore, affecting job creation and economic growth,” he added.He further said the national economy continued to record slower growth in the wake of declining export, remittance inflow, private-sector investment and revenue collection. When asked, Dr Ahmed said, the export sector in particular faced serious challenge during the year due to the political turmoil at home and performance of banking and financial sectors and share market remained poor leaving an adverse impact of the economy. “The performance of agro-sector, however, remained buoyant,” he noted. “The overall performance of the economy was mixed in 2015 as it performed less than expected in line with the official target,” Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, another noted economist of the country, told The New Nation on Thursday.According to him, poor public spending, unsatisfactory revenue collection, lower private sector credit growth, falling export and remittance and weak infrastructure undermined the performance of the national economy. “Performance of all economic sectors except agriculture was not up to the mark and such a performance contributed to lowering economic growth,” Dr Mirza Aziz said.He said, achieving an inclusive economic growth is a must to become a middle-income country. To achieve the goal, we will require substantial efforts on accelerating both public and private investment maintaining macro-economic stability, strengthening revenue mobilization, tackling energy and infrastructure deficits, expanding financial sector and external trade reforms, improving labour skills and economic governance.
