Staff Reporter :
The World Bank (WB) has wanted to know the reasons for the depletion of Bangladesh’s reserve as the country’s reserve is going to be 37.20 billion dollars.
Despite taking various initiatives to increase remittances and strict import, the pressure on the foreign exchange is not reducing.
It is possible to meet the import expenses with the present reserve $37.20 billion for about five months as the country is now paying eight billion dollars per month import expense purposes.
Against this backdrop, a delegation of the World Bank led by Matthew Varghese, Regional Director of South Asia held a meeting with State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam on Monday.
“During the meeting, the World Bank wants to know what Bangladesh is thinking about foreign reserves and whether the reserve will increase or decrease in the coming days. At the same time, they also wanted to know the reasons for decreasing the reserve,” Shamsul Alam told journalists after the meeting.
“The World Bank is supporting our budget and they wanted to know our present economic status. The WB has also wanted to know whether our reserve will further increase or decrease. Most importantly, the WB wanted to know the status of Bangladesh’s micro economy,” the State Minister for planning said.
It also wanted to know what steps are taken to control Bangladesh’s inflation, Shamsul Alam said, adding that
the reserve has decreased with the increase of inflation and it wants to know how it can be overcome from the present situation.
According to the State Minister, the World Bank has also wanted to know about the restoration of discipline in project formulation and how to reduce the time in project formulation.
The World Bank has enquired whether Bangladesh’s budget and planning are being coordinated in the coming days, he added.
“Our inflation has not been increased as much as it should have increased and food products did not increase much. The government has taken various steps to reduce inflation including reduction of import expenses,” Shamsul Alam said.
The government has handled the problem carefully, especially the gap in foreign exchange that created the balance of payment deficit, he said, adding that reserves have to be used to meet this problem.
“The economic situation has been improving since July this year. Exports increased by 35 per cent in the last two months and remittances are getting better on official channels,” the State Minister said.
Bangladesh is now receiving remittances as much as two billion dollars every month and the country never received two billion dollars at once in the past, mentioned the state minister.
“Imports are decreasing but exports are increasing. We are heading for a smooth economy managing the entire crisis. The exchange rate is left up to the market and the foreign exchange market will also be stabilised,” Shamsul Alam said.
He hoped that there will be no depletion in country’s reserve further.
No productive sector was disrupted, he said, adding that agriculture and industry are producing equally and the production system is fine.
“The inflation has increased in Bangladesh as it is increased globally due to volatile economic situation and price hike of daily commodities across the world. However, the entire economy of the country is under our control now,” he added.
The World Bank has suggested to reduce projects cost and implement them on time managing budget, the State Minister said.
Bangladesh will emphasise on green climate financing growth and Delta plan is also a part of Green Growth. Country’s revenue earning has increased by 16 percent and it will increase further.
The government is reforming VAT laws too, which the World Bank wanted to know.
Referring to the ongoing development projects in the government, the Minister said that efforts are being made to increase the speed of all projects including mega projects in the country.
