Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman on Thursday said the proposed national budget should have been more ‘ambitious’ to achieve the government’s various targets by 2030.
The BB governor made the remark while addressing a seminar on ‘National Budget 2014-2015: Challenges for Implementation’ organised by United International University in the capital.
‘If the budget were not ambitious, it would be difficult to accomplish Bangladesh’s various goals by 2030,’ he said.
Finance minister AMA Muhith placed the proposed budget worth Tk 2,50,506 crore for the fiscal 2014-2015 at the national parliament on June 5.
Leading economists, however, have termed the proposed budget an ambitious one and not realistic for implementation.
They also said that all the major economic indicators are downward as the country’s economy is facing hurdle to grow.
Labeling the country’s macro-economic scenarios as ‘first-class’, Atiur said, ‘We have been able to keep the inflation rate within 6/7 per cent for the last 7/8 years which has helped the country to get stable rating despite instable political situation.
Speaking on the occasion, former adviser to the caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman said that the foreign currency reserve of the country has increased sharply in recent time as there was no growth in the country’s economy.
Terming the country’s economic growth rate ‘stagnant’ for last 7/8 years, Hossian said that the country’s economic growth rate since the 70s increased by one per cent in every decade, but there was no increase in growth rate in this decade.
‘There is no scope of being complacent with a 6 per cent annual growth rate… it would require 8-9 per cent growth a year to develop the country as per our desired goal,’ he said.
‘We need development to become a middle-income country which will be free from discrimination, poverty, malnutrition and unplanned urbanisation,’ he said.
Apart from lack of skill, there is corruption in the economic governance of the country which is hindering implementation of the development plans, the former advisor said.
UIU business and economics department professor Mohammad Musa said that there is nothing in the proposed budget which is supportive to the capital market.
-With New Age input
