Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Bangladesh’s economy gained momentum in 2016, but failed to fire on all cylinders due to lack of adequate investment, physical infrastructure and productive workforce, economists said on Friday.
They said, positive inclination to consumption from public pay hikes drove the GDP growth, however, a fall in remittance inflow adversely affected consumption that prevented growth from hitting market expectations.
“The economic performance was ‘mixed’ in 2016 as both positives and negatives factors have played on the economy,” Dr Zahid Hussain, lead economist, World Bank’s Bangladesh Country Office, told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, Bangladesh economy is dominated by agriculture, exports and services sectors and their performance was more or less satisfactory throughout the year 2016.
“Our export sector is largely dependent on apparel industry. The industry seems to be overcoming the image crisis created after the Rana Plaza disaster. The sector has already undergone through massive transformation in line with the global buyers’ requirement leading to a positive impact on the country’s overall export,” he observed.
He added, “Apparel export performance was bright in 2016 and factory remediation has helped boost shipments from garment sector.”
Dr Zahid noted agriculture production remained buoyant but growth remained stagnant due to declining farmland and lack of advanced farming technology.
“Service-oriented companies such as telecom, transport and retail businesses did well in the year taking advantage of a stable political situation in the country,” he said, adding, “But the financial services companies such as banks miserably failed to contribute to the
economy as a result of mismanagement and loan scams.”
Dr Zahid saw the increased revenue mobilization by the National Board of Revenue as another positive sign for Bangladesh economy in 2016.
He lauded the government’s prudent macroeconomic management that helped to contain CPI inflation and maintain internal-and external debt in reasonable level.
The negatives for Bangladesh economy in 2016 were deterioration of financial health of banking sector, decline in remittance inflow, poor physical infrastructure and low private sector investment.
“All these factors are continued to undermine the growth prospect of Bangladesh economy,” he added.
“Overall economic performance was satisfactory in 2016 and the growth was in positive trajectory,” Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, a leading economist of the country, told The New Nation on Friday.
“If we look at the performance of key economic sectors, there was nothing disconcerting except the remittance inflow and investment.
Remittance inflow continues to decline over the last 15 months which is the most disconcerting picture for the economy. Remittance plays a critical role in Bangladesh economy by boosting consumption. It also helps accelerate GDP growth. So, a fall in remittance is likely to affect the GDP growth,” he added.
Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said, reviving investment and industrial production remain big challenge for the Bangladesh economy, which shows signs of slowdown as a result of infrastructure bottleneck and energy crisis.
“This is a critical area for Bangladesh economy which needs to be improved immediately to boost investment and job creation,” he said.
He also pointed out the productivity of labour, which influences other economic variables, including an economy’s competitiveness in international markets. But Bangladesh missed the opportunity due to lack of skilled labour force.
Bangladesh’s economy gained momentum in 2016, but failed to fire on all cylinders due to lack of adequate investment, physical infrastructure and productive workforce, economists said on Friday.
They said, positive inclination to consumption from public pay hikes drove the GDP growth, however, a fall in remittance inflow adversely affected consumption that prevented growth from hitting market expectations.
“The economic performance was ‘mixed’ in 2016 as both positives and negatives factors have played on the economy,” Dr Zahid Hussain, lead economist, World Bank’s Bangladesh Country Office, told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, Bangladesh economy is dominated by agriculture, exports and services sectors and their performance was more or less satisfactory throughout the year 2016.
“Our export sector is largely dependent on apparel industry. The industry seems to be overcoming the image crisis created after the Rana Plaza disaster. The sector has already undergone through massive transformation in line with the global buyers’ requirement leading to a positive impact on the country’s overall export,” he observed.
He added, “Apparel export performance was bright in 2016 and factory remediation has helped boost shipments from garment sector.”
Dr Zahid noted agriculture production remained buoyant but growth remained stagnant due to declining farmland and lack of advanced farming technology.
“Service-oriented companies such as telecom, transport and retail businesses did well in the year taking advantage of a stable political situation in the country,” he said, adding, “But the financial services companies such as banks miserably failed to contribute to the
economy as a result of mismanagement and loan scams.”
Dr Zahid saw the increased revenue mobilization by the National Board of Revenue as another positive sign for Bangladesh economy in 2016.
He lauded the government’s prudent macroeconomic management that helped to contain CPI inflation and maintain internal-and external debt in reasonable level.
The negatives for Bangladesh economy in 2016 were deterioration of financial health of banking sector, decline in remittance inflow, poor physical infrastructure and low private sector investment.
“All these factors are continued to undermine the growth prospect of Bangladesh economy,” he added.
“Overall economic performance was satisfactory in 2016 and the growth was in positive trajectory,” Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, a leading economist of the country, told The New Nation on Friday.
“If we look at the performance of key economic sectors, there was nothing disconcerting except the remittance inflow and investment.
Remittance inflow continues to decline over the last 15 months which is the most disconcerting picture for the economy. Remittance plays a critical role in Bangladesh economy by boosting consumption. It also helps accelerate GDP growth. So, a fall in remittance is likely to affect the GDP growth,” he added.
Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said, reviving investment and industrial production remain big challenge for the Bangladesh economy, which shows signs of slowdown as a result of infrastructure bottleneck and energy crisis.
“This is a critical area for Bangladesh economy which needs to be improved immediately to boost investment and job creation,” he said.
He also pointed out the productivity of labour, which influences other economic variables, including an economy’s competitiveness in international markets. But Bangladesh missed the opportunity due to lack of skilled labour force.
