‘Govt remains cautious on forex management’

The government is very much cautious about foreign exchanging reserve management in the prevailing global situation, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday.

“Unusual situations are going on all over the world at the moment. The government does not want to spend unnecessarily at this time. The government is especially cautious about foreign exchange spending. Therefore, initiatives are being taken to reduce the import of luxury goods” he said.

The minister said this after the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) meeting held virtually.

Responding to a question, Kamal said the government has decided to delay projects those involve foreign exchange spending but are not urgently needed now, by six months or even more if needed to avoid dollar crisis.

He said that the projects which have foreign exchange expenditure issues and are not urgent to be implemented now will be implemented later; adding that the government is doing what it needs to manage this unusual time.

“The matter is simple. When times are tough, decisions have to be tough. Currently, the situation in the world is not normal. These decisions are being taken considering the overall situation in the world. As long as there is instability in the outside world, such a difficult decision has to be taken. However, difficulty does not mean that everything will be shut down. Luxury goods can be bought later,” said the finance minister.

‘No foreign trips for govt officials’

He also said that from now, government officials will not be allowed to take foreign trip unless deemed essential.

“We have taken a decision in this regard and it has been approved,” he said mentioning that the move comes to avoid unnecessary expenditure to ease pressure on the current foreign currency reserve on the country.

“Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina clearly instructed government officials not to go for any foreign trips if not essential. The number of government foreign trips will be reduced”, he added.

On ongoing projects of the government, he said that the government will postpone lower-priority projects which will not have any impact on the country’s macro-economy and GDP.

Responding to a question on the recent GDP estimation, Kamal said, “We have calculated the new GDP in the same method as we did previously. We haven’t changed the method. I think we’re fine. The information we provided is correct.”

“So far, no one, including the IMF and World Bank, had raised any objections regarding our estimation. They agree with us.” the minister added.