The government's plan to keep 7.2 percent GDP (gross domestic product) target in the coming budget will be 'over ambitious' given the external and internal situation, especially political uncertainty, said economists.
They said the slower investment trend in the private sector and inadequate credit flow kept the economic growth at lower base in the outgoing budget, reports UNB. "It'll be overly ambitious if the government targets 7.2 per cent GDP growth in the coming budget," Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Prof Mustafizur Rahman told the news agency on Saturday.
He said the base of the growth is low as the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) calculates 6.0 per cent (6.03 pc) growth for the outgoing budget against the target of 7.2 per cent.
Prof Rahman also said there will be a need of 30 per cent investment of the GDP to achieve such a higher target. "Otherwise, it'll be very difficultÂ…a big portion of investment should come from the private sector but credit growth is slow."
Director General of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Mustafa K Mujeri said if the investment in the private sector does not increase, the growth will not be possible.
"We'll have to remove the stagnation, and some massive changes are needed in the current system to achieve 7.2 per cent GDP growth," he said.
Responding to a question, Dr Mujeri said, "If we look at from with the development perspective, 7.2 per cent GDP growth target is not ambitious; rather it's lower than the expectation. But if we look at from with the real perspective, many may question whether the government will be able to take the steps needed to make that happen."
He said investment mainly comes from the private sector but the private investment was very low in the outgoing fiscal.
Source: Financial Express
