Rejaul Karim Byron

The government will increase the number of beneficiaries of various social safety net schemes by at least 10 lakh from fiscal year (FY) 2025-2026, but allowances will see a small increase, although poor groups have been facing stubbornly high inflation for years.

Fertiliser subsidy will increase to Tk 28,000 crore in the revised budget, up by 64.7 percent from the original

The interim government is planning to prepare a small budget with a 6 percent GDP growth target for the next fiscal year considering the sluggish economy and low revenue collection.

Revenue collection fell significantly short of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) target in the first six months of the current fiscal year, with the floor for the fourth instalment of an ongoing $4.7 billion loan programme proving too ambitious.

For several months, food inflation had also remained in double digits

The total cost of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project is Tk 1,14,225 crore, with the majority financed by Russia.

Revision comes due to slow project implementation

Bangladesh and India began a two-day meeting to review Indian-funded projects, which have been running behind schedule.

The test run may start by the end of 2025 after a year's delay as the gridline on the Padma river is taking longer than anticipated to materialise

The government’s borrowing from domestic sources surged in the first half of FY25, primarily driven by a substantial increase in the issuance of special bonds, particularly those issued to clear arrears to electricity and fertiliser producers, as well as treasury bills (T-bills) and bonds targeting institutional and individual investors.

In a first, the ministries and divisions would be allocated more funds than they are seeking in the revised development budget for this fiscal year as the government attempts to rev up a slowing economy.

The government has set an ambitious revenue growth target in this fiscal year’s revised budget given that three major multilateral development partners are stressing ramping up domestic resource mobilisation.

The government has planned to increase foreign financing by around 15 percent and reduce bank borrowing by 28 percent in the revised budget for this fiscal year to tame inflation.

The planning ministry is now set to present the project proposal to the Ecnec for final approval.

The finance ministry is likely to project that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will surpass the $500-billion mark for the first time in the upcoming fiscal year (FY), anticipating an economic rebound in FY 2025-26.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected Bangladesh’s GDP growth rate to slow to 4.3 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2025, reflecting a subdued outlook amid political uncertainty, supply disruptions and tight monetary policy.

The interim government has revised its aim for foreign exchange reserves, saying it expects to have $28.6 billion by June this year, capitalising on strong growth in inward remittances, exports, and budgetary support from development partners.

The GDP growth target may be brought down to 5.25 percent in the revised budget for the current fiscal year due to the damage caused by multiple floods and the interim government’s contractionary monetary policy to contain high inflation.

The interim government must suspend the inefficient and costly power plants and renegotiate the capacity payment terms with the private power producers as the structure incentivises inefficiency, according to the report of the task force.

Social safety net programmes, such as Open Market Sales (OMS) and Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), provided less help to the actual poor, despite the government boasting about the impact of those schemes on reducing moderate and extreme poverty, according to a taskforce report.