State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY2009-10

Macroeconomic management in FY2009-10 had to confront and address the twin tasks of reviving the investment which had slowed down the GDP growth performance in the recent past, and responding to the lagged impact of the global financial crisis with its demonstrated adverse consequences for Bangladesh’s increasingly globalising economy. As may be recalled, CPD’s analysis of the macroeconomic performance of the previous FY2008-09 identified seven areas which were perceived to pose challenge for the then newly elected government as it got ready to take charge of the economy for the first full fiscal year in the course of its current tenure. These were (a) energising investment, (b) consolidating agriculture, (c) protecting the external sector, (d) strengthening public finance, (e) combating climate change, (f) reviving development administration, and (g) continuing the reforms.
In the backdrop of this scenario, the budget for FY2009-10 had set out an agenda for economic development that was underpinned by targets of higher levels of public sector investment albeit with modest target for GDP growth, robust domestic resource mobilisation targets, higher levels of public expenditure in social sector and a target of double-digit export growth keeping an eye on global economic recovery that was marshalling some momentum. Larger fiscal deficit was to service the ambitions of expansive investment and the counter-cyclical measures put in place to stimulate domestic demand and aid the external sector.