Planning Minister MA Mannan on Tuesday expressed his hope that the general point-to-point inflation in the country is likely to ease from October due to the various measures taken by the government.
"The inflation is likely to remain a bit higher in September as it was in August. After that hopefully, inflation is likely to ease from October," he said.
The planning minister said this while responding to a volley of questions at the "DJFB Development Dialogue" as the chief guest held at the NEC Conference Room in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
Organised by the Development Journalists Forum of Bangladesh (DJFB), its President Hamid Uz Zaman presided over the dialogue while its General Secretary Shahanuare Shaid Shahin moderated it.
Explaining the reasons for a possible easing of inflation in the coming months, Mannan said the current food reserve of the country is at a record height of more than 20 lakh metric tons while the price of rice is gradually coming down in the market with a hope of good Aman harvest.
Besides, he said that the economy of Bangladesh is a “working economy” and it was not affected hugely during the pandemic and the global situation.
Apart from this, he said that the government is going to get around $4.5 billion in support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and it is almost guaranteed.
When asked about the possibility of attaining GDP growth target of 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal year (FY23), Mannan said that the country would hopefully achieve more than 7 per cent growth in the current fiscal year if there is a successful turnaround in the economy, as well as the inflation, starts to come down.
"I'll be happy if the GDP growth reaches 7 per cent in the current fiscal year," he said.
Responding to another question, he informed that the poverty rate is still around 20 per cent while the latest official data on the poverty rate would be available when the findings of the ongoing Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) is published.
Turning to the issue of taking $4.5 billion loan from the IMF, he said that it is a “routine” loan. Although the amount is a bit high, but the package could not be termed as 'bailout' as labelled by many critics.
Mannan said since the economic size, demand and capacity of Bangladesh is growing, the country could afford taking such volume of loan.
He said that the local currency has been devalued against US dollars since there were various pressures, but the dollar price is now coming down and hopefully it would settle on around Tk 100 for per US dollar.
When asked whether the government would revisit its mid-term and long-term plans in the wake of the pandemic and the global volatile situation, the planning minister said, "The doors are not closed, hopefully, we may need not to revisit our plans...if there is no turnaround in the coming months, then we might need to sit with the concerned stakeholders."
When asked for comments on the recent adjustment in fuel oil prices, he said that Bangladesh is not a major buyer nor a major supplier of fuel oil.
He said, that had there been a huge foreign currency reserve for Bangladesh, then the country could have bought fuel oil in advance and thus could have enjoyed an advantage.
Mannan said already there has been a price adjustment of fuel oil a couple of times and hopefully, there would be more revisions in price.
"But, it won't likely to go back to its previous stage," he said.
