Economy rebounds as key indicators improve: Shafiqul

The country’s economy has rebounded, with almost all key indicators showing a positive trend, claimed Shafiqul Alam, the interim government’s de facto spokesperson.

Speaking at a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy on Bailey Road, Dhaka, on Sunday (February 9), Shafiqul, the Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary, said the economic turnaround reflects stabilising market conditions and improved financial outlook.

He said the interim government hopes that the inflation rate will come down to 7.5 per cent by July as the economy of Bangladesh has turned around. 

A meeting on 'Bangladesh economy: recent challenges and future way forward' was held at the Chief Adviser's Office here with Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus in the chair and during the meeting, Shafiqul said, the overall economy of Bangladesh, power and energy, revenue income, banking sector, foreign trade and other issues were discussed.

Shafiqul said the participants of the meeting claimed that every indicator of the economy shows that Bangladesh's economy has turned around, while import growth has increased, new jobs have been created and inflation has dropped to a single digit. 

"We firmly believe that inflation rate will decrease to 7.5 percent by next July...we hope that inflation will not increase during the upcoming Ramadan," he said.

About the land dispute of Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), the press secretary said there is a dispute about the 2,500 acres land of KEPZ and that was why foreign investment did not come to it.

Document of mutation was handed over to the KEPZ authorities on February 6, he said, hoping that now big foreign investors will be interested to invest in the KEPZ. 

Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretaries Abul Kalam Azad Majumder and Apurba Jahangir and Assistant Press Secretary Suchismita Tithi were also present at the press briefing.