Bangladesh's macroeconomy is in stable state: Finance Adviser

Finance Adviser of Bangladesh Interim Government Dr Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday said that the country’s macroeconomy is now in stable state although not fully.

“Our capacity, macroeconomic stability and balance are more or less stable although the current account balance and financial account was negative few months back,” he said.

Dr Salehuddin was addressing a views-exchange meeting on “The role of remittance in Bangladesh’s economy”, held at the media center in Bangladesh Secretariat.

He said due to good remittance inflow and export earnings, the current account balance and financial account are now showing positivity while stability has been restored more or less in the macroeconomy although not fully.

Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum (BSRF) and Taptap Send jointly organized the meeting.

The Finance Adviser said many noted economists of the country are advocating at one hand for mobilizing more revenues, but on other hand reducing tax and VAT. But, the reality is that the tax-GDP ratio in the country is very low, he added.

He said the country is now witnessing more than $2 billion as remittance every month. “Confidence has now been restored among the expatriate Bangladeshis and they now mostly send money through banking channel instead of Hundi,”

He added, most of the Bangladeshis who go abroad are unskilled while the maximum of the Bangladeshis in abroad usually do low-tier jobs like work as cleaners.

 In comparison, the Indians, Sri Lankans and Pakistanis do desk jobs like as managers and assistant managers as they have good academic background and language efficiency, he added.

“If we can provide necessary training to the job seekers who want to go abroad, then they could earn more…the expatriates usually send money for their relatives, near and dear ones and for the dependents…they are the ‘unsung hero’,” he added.

He said the big challenge is that many of the expatriates do not utilize their hard earned money in productive sectors or making hefty savings…rather spend those in non productive sectors like constructing buildings at their village without thinking of good returns or a sound ‘back up’.

The Finance Adviser also stressed on sending more skilled workers in a transparent way so that they could lead a decent life abroad.

“From our side and policy side, there were failures in the past and we’re trying to streamline those,” he added.