UNB, Sangsad Bhaban :
The government has re-fixed the GDP growth target at 6.5 percent for the current fiscal (2013-14) downsizing it from the fiscal’s target of 7.2 percent, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told Parliament on Monday.
“We’ve fixed the GDP growth target at 6.5 percent for the current fiscal year reviewing the overall situation,” he said while placing the report on budget implementation progress for the 2nd quarter (July-December) of the current fiscal (2013-14), the flow of income-expenditure and the macro-economic analysis.
The Finance Minister said it is true that it would not be possible to attain the targeted GDP growth of 7.2 percent in the current fiscal year due to the economic losses incurred by the destructive acts in the last three months (October, November and December).
“Despite the hartals and blockades of the three-month period, we’re hopeful that the GDP growth would be close to 6.5 percent in the current fiscal year after analysing the macroeconomic index trend of the six months till December last year,” he said.
He mentioned that the World Bank and the IMF have projected 5.7 and 6.0 percent GDP growth in the current fiscal alongside the Bangladesh Bank’s around 6 percent and the Bloomberg’s 6.3 percent.
Against the backdrop, Muhith said he was not much disappointed about the GDP growth in the current year, citing the rising trend of production index in industry, mineral and power sector, possibility of increased Boro production due to uninterrupted power supply in the irrigation season having increased power generation, rising trend in private sector credit flow, agriculture credit flow, imports and exports.
He hoped that availing the stable political situation in the post-polls period side by side various supplementary facilities given by the government, the investors would feel encouraged to make new investments while the private sector investment would play a driving force towards attaining GDP growth.
The Finance Minister noted that the trend of economic recovery in the USA has strengthened while the Euro Zone has also come back to its positive trend of growth overcoming the recession; side by side the global economic activity and trade are increasing.
