Bangladesh economy is rebounding from challenges of corona virus pandemic due to the steps of the government including stimulus, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI) observed.
“Turning to FY21, economic conditions seem to have been gradually improving after the easing of restrictions in late May 2020, supported by the government policies,” the trade body said in a statement on Thursday.
MCCI made the observation after reviewing second quarter performance of the current fiscal year.
During this time, the major macroeconomic indicators like remittances, foreign currency reserves, money supply and inflation are in a satisfactory position.
Meanwhile, the inflow of remittances grew by 27.47 per cent to $ 6.23 billion from $ 4.89 billion in this quarter of FY20 despite the ongoing corona pandemic.
In last six months, the net foreign direct investment decreased by 21.96 per cent to $455 million from $583 million in the corresponding period of FY20.
To tackle the economic losses cause, the government has created a refinance scheme of Tk 50.0 billion for the agriculture sector.
However, MCCI expressed concern over the slow pace of distribution of stimulus as the 33 percent of total Tk 50 billion stimulus fund for agricultural farmers remain undisbursed by end of 2020.
Within manufacturing, the large and medium scale industries sub-sector performed poorer than in the previous fiscal, growing at 5.47 per cent in FY20, than the 14.84 per cent in FY19.
The small-scale manufacturing industries also grew lower rate at 7.78 per cent in FY20 against 10.95 per cent in FY19. However, the share of the manufacturing sub-sector in GDP increased to 24.18 per cent in FY20 from 24.08 per cent in the previous fiscal year
In power sector, the trade body appreciated the countrywide electricity generation on 31 December 2020 during the day peak was 8,176 megawatt (MW) and evening peak was 9,367 megawatt.
In the second quarter of current fiscal, the broad money recorded a higher growth of 14.23 per cent at the end of December 2020 compared to 12.04 per cent growth achieved at the end of December 2019, the trade body observed.
Total liquid assets of scheduled banks stood higher at Tk 4143.57 billion at the end of December 2020, compared with Tk 3357.98 billion at the end of June 2020.
Stocks in both Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges continued to suffer mainly due to confidence crisis during most of the time in Q2 of FY21. However, stocks witnessed an upbeat week, the last week of the quarter under review. Export earnings in July-December of FY21 witnessed a marginal decline of 0.35 per cent to $19.23 billion from $19.30 billion in the corresponding six months of the previous fiscal year because of slower recovery of garment shipment from the pandemic- induced business slowdown.
