Rejaul Karim Byron

The government has already provided seasonal assistance to about 10 lakh people living below the poverty line and will expand such social protection programmes to curb the adverse effects of any future economic shock, according to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

Relocation of the hazardous chemical warehouses from old Dhaka is still a far cry since the government failed to accomplish any of the goals set after the devastating fires in the past decade.

With only around 4.62 lakh tonnes of grains in the public food stocks, one of the lowest in years, the government has moved to procure paddy, rice and wheat from local farmers and millers at prices higher than last year’s.

The first nine months of the current fiscal year of 2020-21 saw slow implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) with only 41.92 per cent of the total outlay spent till March while development spending declined 3.27 per cent year-on-year.

The health services division utilised only 21 percent of their allocations from the Annual Development Programme in the last nine months, said a report of the implementation, monitoring and evaluation division of the planning ministry.

The government is going to provide another round of cash assistance to nearly 35 lakh poor families facing income losses and hardship amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

The World Bank has agreed to provide $500 million to Bangladesh in additional financing to buy Covid-19 vaccines, but set some conditions regarding the procurement of the shots.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reversed Bangladesh’s steady trend of poverty reduction which had continued over the past two decades, according to a new report of the World Bank.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday indicated that the government may consider reducing corporate tax rates for listed firms in the upcoming budget.

Economists have suggested that the government open a hotline service through which ultra-poor people facing food crisis during “lockdown” can communicate their sufferings and the government can take prompt steps to get food to them.

Solar home systems (SHS) saved Bangladesh $1,852 million while providing clean energy for the past 15 years since 2003, says a World Bank survey.

Despite taking aggressive measures to import rice in the last three months, the government has so far failed to replenish the country’s depleting grain stocks.

The International Monetary Fund has raised its projection for the economic growth of Bangladesh to 5 per cent for 2021, up from 4.4 per cent it forecast in October.

The prolonged closure of schools is causing an education crisis that may cost Bangladesh and other South Asian countries over $1 trillion in lost earnings in the long run, according to a World Bank report.

An intense and sustained vaccination campaign can play a pivotal role in Bangladesh’s future economic benefits up to more than 10 percent of its current GDP, according to a new report of the World Bank.

World Bank in its latest twice-a-year regional update has raised question whether remittance flow in the South Asian countries has really increased.

Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) may grow by as high as 5.6 per cent in the current fiscal year, subject to three factors, said the World Bank yesterday.

The World Bank has more than doubled its gross domestic product (GDP) growth prediction for Bangladesh for the current fiscal year as the economy shows signs of recovery.

The state coffer was empty after Bangladesh’s nine-month-long Liberation War. Poverty, hunger, natural disasters, famine, crumbling infrastructure, political turmoil, and coups in the first decade of Bangladesh’sinception did not paint a picture that would radiate hope.

Bangladesh needs to improve infrastructure and standard of education, equip the youth population with market-oriented skills and uproot corruption to become a high-income country, experts say.