Kazi Iqbal

While the spending of the affluent class has cascading effects to generate income for many, there are scopes for making the impact of that spending broader.

Inflation is ubiquitous now, largely fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine war and the pent-up demand after easing of the Covid restrictions. The overheated economies along with the high import prices of commodities and gasoline have made the consumption basket dearer in almost all countries in the world.

The size of the economy matters. The size of the domestic market, popularly known as the “scale effect” in growth theory, has a strong bearing on the paths of industrialisation of an economy.

The conventional textbook approach of export-led growth models rooted in export-oriented manufacturing and climbing up the value chain has been the canonical models for growth for the East Asian countries (e.g., Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, and China). This model is widely advocated for other developing countries for both enhancing growth and reduction of poverty.

Those who grew up watching Bangladesh Television (BTV) during the 1980s and 1990s can recall well the commercials BTV would run, in part because there was only a handful of them. Toiletries, batteries, jewellery, shoes, and garments would dominate the intervals of the TV programmes.

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in over 114 million infections and a staggering 2.5 million deaths worldwide. It has crippled health systems, deteriorated living standards, and exacerbated inequality.