Rejaul Karim Byron

In the end, was the government’s austerity stance just lip service?

Bangladesh is poised to get about $2 billion in budget support this fiscal year in a co-funding initiative led by the Asian Development Bank, in a development that would ease the continued pressure on the foreign currency reserves.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to travel to Washington DC towards the end of next month to celebrate 50 years of partnership between Bangladesh and the World Bank.

Development spending in Bangladesh stood at 32.10 per cent in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, the slowest pace of implementation during the rule of the Awami League, official figures showed.  

The Rooppur nuclear power plant is likely to be delayed further if the recent revision of one of the associated projects is any indication.

Although the government discourages implementing agencies of development projects in Bangladesh from seeking time and cost revisions, several proposals in this regard are placed at each meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

Economists yesterday stressed on addressing the persistently high inflation, macroeconomic stability and low revenue base in the pre-budget session for the upcoming fiscal year with the finance minister.

Three issues would be dictating the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, the last of the Awami League government’s present five-year term: the International Monetary Fund’s conditions, the persistently high inflation and next year’s national election.

The government’s expenses on interest payments rose more than 22 per cent to Tk 40,792 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal year owing largely to higher expenditures on treasury bills, official figures showed.  

Russia has proposed a direct payment system bypassing the global standard SWIFT to settle the dues for Rooppur nuclear power plant as the Soviet nation looks to navigate the sanctions from the West following the Ukraine war.

The government yesterday rolled back most of the austerity measures it imposed at the beginning of the fiscal year to better weather the economic upheaval although statistics indicate there has hardly been any improvement on the front.

The government has prepared a draft law for ensuring transparency and accountability in public sector purchases while also improving efficiency in the sector.

The overall cost for transmitting electricity from the Adani power plant in Godda, Jharkhand is set to increase further as two projects meant for that end are eyeing cost and time revisions.

Implementation of eight fast-track projects under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) was at a good pace in the first seven months of the current fiscal year of 2022-23 while that of other projects was slower.

Bangladesh’s dollar crisis is just not subsiding even though imports have dropped off and both exports and remittance are staging a rally.

The government can expect budget support of $500 million at best from the World Bank this fiscal year after it failed to implement key reforms that would have unlocked the entire $1 billion it was seeking.

Bangladesh and India are in talks about doing away with the dollar as the official currency for payments between the two countries -- a development that would bring down the cost of trade as well as the conversion rate losses for businesses and ordinary people.

The government has officially abandoned the austerity stance it took on at the beginning of the fiscal year as it deems the economy is nearing good health.

Major global rating agency Moody’s yesterday downgraded its outlook of Bangladesh’s banking system from stable to negative -- a crushing development that is set to make foreign transactions trickier and costlier for businesses and banks.

The first seven months of the current fiscal year of 2022-23 saw the lowest implementation rate of the annual development programme (ADP) in the last three years, with only 28.16 per cent of the total outlay being spent till January.