In her overview of global economic trends in 2023, Dr. Fahmida Khatoon, Executive Director, Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said that the global economy is passing through several challenges. “International monetary organizations predict that 2023 will be a bad year,” she said, quoting the IMF that growth will decline globally.
He continued, given the grim growth outlook, the world will face high inflation in 2023. Families with limited income and the poor will have to spend more on food and fuel. He said, “Bangladesh’s economy used to enjoy macroeconomic stability for a long time, but not now. Covid came and then there was war and it affected the whole world.”
Pointing to inflation in Bangladesh, he said the official rate was one thing but the reality was another. “It is very disturbing. Even the prices of TCB goods have gone up by 20 to 50 per cent. We have to import many commodities like oil, sugar and wheat, but all the inflation is not imported The market is dominated by a few players.” who manipulate the market.
He said the rising fuel prices have added to the suffering of the people and this has happened at a difficult time. This created difficulties at the domestic and industrial level.
On the external sector, the CPD executive director said that while exports have been good, imports have been high. Remittance was also less. “The trade gap in the external sector could have normalized with higher remittances, but there was a decline in remittances,” it said, adding that the current account balance was also negative and there was a drawdown in foreign exchange reserves.
Regarding the government’s response to the situation, she said that it had adopted some austerity measures, announced some reduction in foreign visits, some projects were put on hold or postponed, but these were very successful measures. were not
Moving to the banking sector, Fahmida Khatoon said it was vulnerable even before Covid and the war. Banks, not only state owned but private sector banks were also full of scams and misappropriation of funds. Liquidity was dwindling and 9.3 per cent of total loans were non-performing. The IMF kept the rate very high.
In conclusion, he said that the world is facing challenges. This will end, but countries with strong institutional mechanisms will be better able to recover.