Finance minister A M A Muhith has issued a strong rebuttal of charges made by the BNP chairperson that the economy was in tatters.
Soon after arriving in Dhaka after a week-long trip to Korea, the finance minister said Bangladesh's economy was doing quite well. "And it is not just in my eyes but in the eyes of the world."
Referring to the opposition leadership, he said they want to create a crisis. "That is why they are making such complaints to create instability."
Muhith said he would soon speak about the overall situation at a news conference.
"As I have said before, the major economic indicators except for just a couple are doing well." Muhith acknowledged that subsidies and balance of payments were some 'challenge'. "But we are trying to tackle them."
The finance minister said that he had mentioned a number of risks during his budget speech. "I had noted that this would be the riskiest year."
"I had mentioned each one of the points in my speech, which the opposition and the civil society are harping on now."
Muhith said, "There are some civil society people speaking in the same line as that of the opposition."
"The other day I watched a private bank's CEO say that there was no crisis in the economy, all the crisis was in the talk shows. People seem to speak whatever takes their fancy."
The minister said he was out of the country for about a week, during which time he had read reports of the BNP chief Khaleda Zia's comments saying that Bangladesh was going broke.
The opposition leader had said that economy is in a grave crisis on Thursday when speaking about the state of the economy for almost an hour citing up to date statistics.
"That allegation is not correct. They are trying to create the crisis and they are doing it out of their intention to gain political advantage off the situation."
Regarding the government's bank borrowing, finance minister said it was a continuous process. When pointed that the government had reached the domestic bank borrowing target in the first four and a half months of the fiscal, Muhith said the matter was not clear to many. "The first few months of the year do not yield much by way of revenues. So the government is forced to borrow from the banks to runs its expenses."
"The government will borrow and pay back. The point is whether the government is exceeding its projection by the year end."
The finance minister said he was confident that the bank borrowing would be within the limit.
The government's target for borrowing money was set at Tk 189.57 billion, and the total amount of borrowing stood at Tk 188.59 billion on Oct 15.
The government had borrowed Tk 204 billion in the last fiscal which exceeded the initial projection by Tk 50 billion.
When asked whether budget shortfall would remain within target, Muhith told , "It will remain within five percent of GDP."
Generally the five percent shortfall is considered to be a benchmark ceiling.
The BNP chief contended that GDP will not grow by seven percent as do a few economists. Muhith replied, "There were similar apprehensions last year too that growth won't reach six percent. But by the end of the year it had reached 6.7 percent."
"I believe that we will reach the target."
Soon after arriving in Dhaka after a week-long trip to Korea, the finance minister said Bangladesh's economy was doing quite well. "And it is not just in my eyes but in the eyes of the world."
Referring to the opposition leadership, he said they want to create a crisis. "That is why they are making such complaints to create instability."
Muhith said he would soon speak about the overall situation at a news conference.
"As I have said before, the major economic indicators except for just a couple are doing well." Muhith acknowledged that subsidies and balance of payments were some 'challenge'. "But we are trying to tackle them."
The finance minister said that he had mentioned a number of risks during his budget speech. "I had noted that this would be the riskiest year."
"I had mentioned each one of the points in my speech, which the opposition and the civil society are harping on now."
Muhith said, "There are some civil society people speaking in the same line as that of the opposition."
"The other day I watched a private bank's CEO say that there was no crisis in the economy, all the crisis was in the talk shows. People seem to speak whatever takes their fancy."
The minister said he was out of the country for about a week, during which time he had read reports of the BNP chief Khaleda Zia's comments saying that Bangladesh was going broke.
The opposition leader had said that economy is in a grave crisis on Thursday when speaking about the state of the economy for almost an hour citing up to date statistics.
"That allegation is not correct. They are trying to create the crisis and they are doing it out of their intention to gain political advantage off the situation."
Regarding the government's bank borrowing, finance minister said it was a continuous process. When pointed that the government had reached the domestic bank borrowing target in the first four and a half months of the fiscal, Muhith said the matter was not clear to many. "The first few months of the year do not yield much by way of revenues. So the government is forced to borrow from the banks to runs its expenses."
"The government will borrow and pay back. The point is whether the government is exceeding its projection by the year end."
The finance minister said he was confident that the bank borrowing would be within the limit.
The government's target for borrowing money was set at Tk 189.57 billion, and the total amount of borrowing stood at Tk 188.59 billion on Oct 15.
The government had borrowed Tk 204 billion in the last fiscal which exceeded the initial projection by Tk 50 billion.
When asked whether budget shortfall would remain within target, Muhith told , "It will remain within five percent of GDP."
Generally the five percent shortfall is considered to be a benchmark ceiling.
The BNP chief contended that GDP will not grow by seven percent as do a few economists. Muhith replied, "There were similar apprehensions last year too that growth won't reach six percent. But by the end of the year it had reached 6.7 percent."
"I believe that we will reach the target."
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