Selim Raihan

The soaring food prices, coupled with falling real income, pose a serious challenge for the poor in terms of accessing adequate and nutritious food.

Inflation in Bangladesh has reached its highest level in a decade and has been a persistent problem for more than 18 months, starting from early last year.

Bangladesh’s progress towards switching to renewable energy has remained slow and uncertain.

Bangladesh has strong economic aspirations to become part of a forum like BRICS.

The key question, however, remains: to what extent have our current economic challenges been addressed by the new budget? It hasn't done proper justice to answer this question.

We should have focused on addressing the macro-fundamentals, which would create a launching pad for the coming year’s fiscal flow.

Addressing the inflationary pressure and the resulting food insecurity of the poorer households need to be the top priority now.

Bangladesh’s economic growth performance has been encouraging, but questions remain regarding the drivers and quality of said growth.

A more comprehensive analysis is needed to gather a complete picture of the hundi business.

One of his finest strengths was his ability to communicate at all levels. He could comfortably address a roomful of diplomats, academics and policymakers, and not miss a beat when speaking to them about his dreams. He could mix with ordinary people from all walks of life, speak in their local dialects, and relate to their problems just as easily.

Dealing with these two major challenges is essential for macroeconomic stability

The volatility of commodity prices in both global and local markets has put ordinary people in Bangladesh in an uncertain situation.

We need a strategy to deal with youth unemployment and improve women's inclusion into the economy

Since it boosts individual productivity and produces a trained labour force, education is seen as a crucial road to economic progress.

Despite the macroeconomic success, Bangladesh faces several long-standing challenges.

The current global political, economic and trade situations are not favourable for a developing country like Bangladesh.

The national budget for the next fiscal year will be the third since the start of the Covid-19 crisis in March 2020. Can we expect it to address the current realities, contexts and challenges of Bangladesh?

Do the official inflation figures in Bangladesh reflect the actual inflation faced by the economically marginalised households in the country?

As we continue to celebrate 50 years of Bangladesh’s independence, there is a need for an elaborate discussion about the development challenges we are about to face in the days to come. Bangladesh’s development challenges are associated with its larger development goals.

Seeing the varying degrees of Covid that the world has experienced over the last one and a half years, we can safely assume that this pandemic is here to stay.