Kamruzzaman Bablu :
Bangladesh’s domestic economy is roaring ahead of the biggest Muslim festival Eid-ul-fitr, with businesses and market experts predicting that more than Tk 70,000 crore will be transacted this year.
Sources said, Eid ul-Fitr has an impact on the country’s economy, as products like clothes, footwear, food, cosmetics, jewelry and electronic gadgets are traded for billions of taka every year. This year is no exception.
During the current Ramadan, sales have multiplied many times over average monthly volume, though verifiable data was not available to support the claim.
Officials of the related sector said, there is no statistics available with the government and non-government institutions about Eid market economy. But Bangladesh Shop Owners Association (BSOA) makes an approximate estimate of Eid sales in the country every year.
BSOA said, about Tk 35,000 crore will be transected in readymade garments (RMG) market in the current year across the country including Dhaka city which is 15 per cent more than that of the last year.
About Tk 5,000 crore will be transected in RMG on the footpath shopping. Besides this, about Tk 10,000 crore will be transected in other sectors.
BSOA leaders told this correspondent on Sunday that about Tk 65,000 crore has already been transected in the market across the country, including Dhaka city. There will be more transactions in next few days.
A senior official of Bangladesh Bank told The New Nation, “There takes place 10 times more transactions during the Eid celebration than the other time. More than Tk 5,000 crore is transected every day after 15 Ramadan as per bank’s records.”
According to the Central Bank sources, retail sales in the country reached more than Tk 90,000 crore during the last two Eid festivals (Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azaha) leading to strong domestic demand and consumption.
So, the international lending agency estimates that about Tk 70,000 crore will be transacted during the coming Eid-ul-Fitr alone.
Former caretaker government adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam said political unrest affected the country’s investment in the past. But the political situation now being calm and quite, domestic economy will be stronger.
Zaid Bakht, an prominent economist, said that the country will receive a lot of remittance from abroad in the run up to the Eid-ul-fitr.
Besides, he said, the garments workers will get about Tk 2,000 crore as bonus and government employees will get more than Tk 700 crore. Most of this amount will be expended for Eid shopping purposes. Beyond this, huge amount of money would be expended under non-government and private heads.
In 2015, about Tk 60,000 crore were transected, but this year it will be exceeded.
