Positive key economic indicators in Jul-Dec signal recovery: Finance minister

The overall positive state of the key economic indicators during the first half of the current financial year indicates that the country is able to recover from the economic losses and return to growth, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said.

The economy is on the path towards successful recovery after overcoming the Covid-19 impacts, he said at the concluding session of the 12th parliament on Sunday.   

"In the first half of the current fiscal year, per capita national income rose, expatriates' earnings increased, foreign exchange reserve was satisfactory, there was a surplus in the current account, the currency exchange rate was stable, and inflation was downward. These indicate that we will be able to return to growth," said the minister.

He said implementing bailout packages had enabled the government to accelerate business, create jobs and job security, increase domestic demand, and continue economic activities.

Kamal hoped that the widespread Covid-19 immunisation drives would help effectively tackle the pandemic in the coming days.

He said the key strategies of the government to revive the economy in the future would be tax management and reforms in the financial sector while other measures would include increasing public investment in education, health, and human resources, speeding up private investment, reducing poverty, and expanding exports.

This fiscal year's annual development programme (ADP) implementation was lower than that of the previous year due to the pandemic, the finance minister said.

He further said one of the major challenges in achieving growth targets is the successful implementation of the ADP.

"To increase the ADP implementation rate, initiatives have been taken to regularly monitor the progress of large projects and to ensure effective coordination among ministries," Kamal explained.

Noting that revenue collection was satisfactory despite the pandemic, he said revenue collection usually gathers pace at the end of the financial year.

"Therefore, we hope to meet the revenue collection target at the end of the fiscal year."

He pointed out that exports had been slightly upward despite the pandemic, which indicated that exports had been turning around after overcoming the Covid-19 impacts.

"Imports of capital machinery and intermediate products declined during July-December due to a slowdown in domestic demand caused by the pandemic but will hopefully increase during the rest of the fiscal year," added Kamal.