Economic growth target to be set at 7.0pc for next fiscal
FHM Humayan Kabir
The government is likely to target a 7.0 per cent economic growth rate for the next fiscal, expecting buoyant non-farm activities in the rural areas and further expansion of manufacturing and service sectors, officials said.
This growth target of gross domestic product (GDP) for fiscal 2011-12 will be announced through the forthcoming national budget, to be unveiled by the Finance Minister to the Jatiya Sangsad on June 09.
"Our projection about the macro-economic situation shows that the non-farm activities in rural areas will further increase, along with an expected expansion of manufacturing and service sectors in the next fiscal. So, the target at 7.0 per cent is very realistic," Member of the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission, Prof Shamsul Alam said.
"Under earlier macro-economic projections, we targeted a 6.9 per cent GDP growth rate for the next fiscal. But when the latest BBS statistics showed a very impressive growth performance in the outgoing fiscal, the government has revised the growth target to 7.0 per cent for the next fiscal," he added.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has recently said that Bangladesh's economy is set to expand at 6.66 per cent rate in the outgoing fiscal year (FY), 2010-11.
The BBS has also adjusted the final growth figure of fiscal 2009-10 to 6.07 per cent, up from the provisional figure at of 5.82 per cent.
"We want to achieve an 8.0 per cent growth in fiscal 2014-15. So, we need to achieve a 7.3 per cent annual growth rate on an average in the coming years," said Prof Alam.
He said: "Once the village people were dependent only on farm activities. But now non-farm activities have assumed a greater importance than before in the rural economy. The growing remittance flow is also playing a strong role there," he said.
"Besides, the country's service and manufacturing sectors are expected to expand further as the power crisis will largely be overcome in the next fiscal. It will help the industrial growth rate to accelerate further," he said.
The government targets an 8.0 per cent GDP growth rate to be achieved in fiscal 2015 (FY15) and a double digit one by fiscal '18 for Bangladesh to become a middle-income country and to cut hunger to below 15 per cent by 2021.
Prof Alam, also an economist, said, "if we want to achieve a 7.0 per cent GDP growth rate, we need to expand the overall investment to 28 per cent of the total GDP."
At present the country's investment-GDP ratio is 24.7 per cent, one of the lowest in South Asia.
In the national budget last fiscal, the finance minister estimated that the Bangladesh economy would expand at a 6.7 per cent, in terms of the value of its gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms. But this growth rate was considered "ambitious" by multilateral agencies - Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - which forecast the growth rate at a lower level.
In April, the ADB forecast a growth of 6.2 per cent for fiscal 2009-10. The IMF and the WB predicted a 6.3 per cent growth rate, only two months back.
Prof Alam said the impressive economic growth is largely attributable to the higher level of farm production and the stunning rebound by the manufacturing sector.
"Since December, weather has been extremely kind to us. As a result, we got the record harvests of wheat, maize, boro rice and fruits," he said.
FHM Humayan Kabir
The government is likely to target a 7.0 per cent economic growth rate for the next fiscal, expecting buoyant non-farm activities in the rural areas and further expansion of manufacturing and service sectors, officials said.
This growth target of gross domestic product (GDP) for fiscal 2011-12 will be announced through the forthcoming national budget, to be unveiled by the Finance Minister to the Jatiya Sangsad on June 09.
"Our projection about the macro-economic situation shows that the non-farm activities in rural areas will further increase, along with an expected expansion of manufacturing and service sectors in the next fiscal. So, the target at 7.0 per cent is very realistic," Member of the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission, Prof Shamsul Alam said.
"Under earlier macro-economic projections, we targeted a 6.9 per cent GDP growth rate for the next fiscal. But when the latest BBS statistics showed a very impressive growth performance in the outgoing fiscal, the government has revised the growth target to 7.0 per cent for the next fiscal," he added.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has recently said that Bangladesh's economy is set to expand at 6.66 per cent rate in the outgoing fiscal year (FY), 2010-11.
The BBS has also adjusted the final growth figure of fiscal 2009-10 to 6.07 per cent, up from the provisional figure at of 5.82 per cent.
"We want to achieve an 8.0 per cent growth in fiscal 2014-15. So, we need to achieve a 7.3 per cent annual growth rate on an average in the coming years," said Prof Alam.
He said: "Once the village people were dependent only on farm activities. But now non-farm activities have assumed a greater importance than before in the rural economy. The growing remittance flow is also playing a strong role there," he said.
"Besides, the country's service and manufacturing sectors are expected to expand further as the power crisis will largely be overcome in the next fiscal. It will help the industrial growth rate to accelerate further," he said.
The government targets an 8.0 per cent GDP growth rate to be achieved in fiscal 2015 (FY15) and a double digit one by fiscal '18 for Bangladesh to become a middle-income country and to cut hunger to below 15 per cent by 2021.
Prof Alam, also an economist, said, "if we want to achieve a 7.0 per cent GDP growth rate, we need to expand the overall investment to 28 per cent of the total GDP."
At present the country's investment-GDP ratio is 24.7 per cent, one of the lowest in South Asia.
In the national budget last fiscal, the finance minister estimated that the Bangladesh economy would expand at a 6.7 per cent, in terms of the value of its gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms. But this growth rate was considered "ambitious" by multilateral agencies - Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - which forecast the growth rate at a lower level.
In April, the ADB forecast a growth of 6.2 per cent for fiscal 2009-10. The IMF and the WB predicted a 6.3 per cent growth rate, only two months back.
Prof Alam said the impressive economic growth is largely attributable to the higher level of farm production and the stunning rebound by the manufacturing sector.
"Since December, weather has been extremely kind to us. As a result, we got the record harvests of wheat, maize, boro rice and fruits," he said.
... i think right now ... bangladeshi economy is around 109 billion $ mark ,.. and pakistani's are at 180 mark .... 
