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BUDGET-FY22-GROWTH
Budget for FY22 eyes 7.2% GDP growth
DHAKA, June 3, 2021 (BSS) – The GDP growth rate for FY (2021-2022) has been fixed at 7.2 percent remaining consistent with the government’s long-term plan and taking the post COVID-19 recovery situation into account.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said this while placing the national budget for FY22 in Jatiya Sangsad today.
Kamal in his budget speech said Bangladesh’s sustained achievement of high GDP growth in the last decade has been halted temporarily due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Even though we achieved a record 8.15 percent growth in FY2018-2019, it has slowed down to 5.2 percent in FY2019-2020 due to the pandemic,” he said.
The Finance Minister said the GDP growth rate was originally estimated to be 8.20 percent for FY 2020-2021 on the assumptions that the economy would recover from the impact of the pandemic.
But, he said the economic activities slowed down and the expected momentum in import and export activities did not take place due to the continuation of the impact of the pandemic and the surge of its second wave and resulting lockdowns in various countries in the world including Bangladesh.
“However, considering the better-than-expected growth in remittances and the implementation of the large stimulus packages by the government to facilitate economic recovery, the GDP growth rate has been revised at 6.1 percent for the current fiscal year.” He added.
The Finance Minister said the medium-term, strong domestic demand will be the main source of growth. “Our focus will be on increasing consumption and investment to stimulate domestic demand and enhancing exports to augment external demand.” He added.
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