Special Correspondent: The country’s economy has shown a temporary improvement in the first quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year (July-September). The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) said that it is maintaining the growth trend in the changing times by overcoming instability, especially by increasing imports, exports and preventing the decline in reserves.
However, the top business organization said that there are challenges such as high inflation, shortfall in revenue collection, reduction in government spending, and slowdown in employment and investment.
In its quarterly review of the economy published on Thursday (November 28), the MCCI said that restoring the law-and-order situation is the most urgent priority now to return the economy to normal.
The flow of remittances or expatriate income increased in the first quarter of the fiscal year. During July-September, expatriate income in the country grew by 33.34 percent; during this period, the total expatriate income came to $ 6.5427 billion. In September, the last month of the quarter, the growth in expatriate income was 80.22 percent.
The country’s domestic credit flow has decreased in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. During this period, the growth rate of credit flow was 9.10 percent. In the same period of the previous year, it was 12.89 percent.
Among domestic debt, the growth rate of private sector credit flow was 9.20 percent. In the same period of the previous year, it was 9.69 percent. In other words, the private sector credit flow did not decrease much. But during this period, the debt and expenditure of the public sector have decreased a lot.
MCCI has shown that the growth rate of government borrowing in the first quarter of the current fiscal year was 8.75 percent. In the same period of the previous year, it was 26.27 percent. In other words, the growth rate has decreased a lot. In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the government’s growth target was 14.2 percent. In other words, the government borrowed less than the target.
In this situation, the growth rate of Bangladesh Bank’s broad money has also decreased. Broad money growth was 7.88 percent in the July-September quarter; which was 8.96 percent in the same period of the previous year.
Bangladesh exported goods worth 11.66 billion or 1,160 million dollars in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal year. Which was 10.83 billion or 1,830 million dollars in the same period of the previous fiscal year. That is, in the first quarter of this year, export growth was 7.62 percent. However, in the last month of the quarter, September, exports decreased by 5.80 percent compared to August.
Imports increased by 1.64 percent in the July-September quarter; during this time, total imports amounted to 16.17 billion or 1,617 million dollars. Which was 15.91 billion or 1,591 million dollars in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
