Bangladesh is a true global champion in various sectors including GDP growth, poverty reduction, women empowerment, climate adaptation, says the World Bank.
Abdoulaye Seck, the newly appointed World Bank Country Director to Bangladesh and Bhutan, made the remark while he paid a courtesy call on Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal at his secretariat office on Tuesday.
He extolled highly the economic development of Bangladesh achieved over the years.
“Bangladesh's economic capacity is much better than that of any other country in Asia. Bangladesh has taken various timely steps to deal with Coronavirus under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina which has helped maintain this growth”, he said.
Terming the World Bank one of the important development partners of Bangladesh, the Finance Minister said there are various important sectors like river ways and river-based economy where the World Bank could work in Bangladesh.
Citing youth folk as one of the major tools for the economy, he said that Washington-based lending agency could take special measures for the youth force.
Kamal said despite the tough challenges in the global economy, the size of the country's GDP has increased a lot while the Canadian online-based agency Visual Capitalist has placed Bangladesh as the 35th largest economy of the world based on the data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Finance Minister stated that US President Joe Biden has also praised highly the economic growth of Bangladesh.
Kamal also requested the World Bank country director to take some iconic projects for Bangladesh.
Besides, they also discussed the progress in probable funding for the “Beautification of Dhaka” project to ensure the navigability of rivers around the city and thus enhance the aesthetics of the capital.
Bangladesh is now the 35th largest economy in the world, according to a report titled ‘The Top Heavy Global Economy’, published by ‘Visual Capitalist’.
Citing IMF statistics, Canadian online publication ‘Visual Capitalist’ reported this information on December 29. As per the report, Bangladesh is the 35th largest economy in 2022 with a GDP size of $460.8 billion. Earlier, the rank of Bangladesh was 41st.
However, the country’s economy has started flourishing at the beginning of the New Year despite the fear of global crisis and recession.
Export earnings, the main sector of foreign exchange earnings, witnessed a record growth. Last November, the export sector achieved a milestone to cross $5 billion earnings for the first time to stand at $5.09 billion in a single month.
The country has also witnessed a record in export earnings in December as well amounting to $5.37 billion, up by over 9 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The remittances also increased by 4.23 percent to stand $1.70 billion in December 2022.
Remittance witnessed a rising trend and crossed $10 billion during the July-December period after its decline for two consecutive months.
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, in the first six months of the current fiscal year 2022-23, expatriates have sent about $10.42 billion.
In last November, expatriates sent $1594.70 million. An average of $53.10 million poured every day. In the previous two months, October and September, $49.20 million and $51.30 million respectively came daily.
On the other hand, 1.15 million people have gone overseas for work in 2022, surpassing all previous records.
If this large number of expatriates start sending remittances to the country, it is expected that the country's foreign exchange crisis will disappear.
Moreover, inflation has been declining for the last four months. In December, the wages of workers in various sectors of the country increased by 7.3 percent, which is more than the previous two months of October and November. This will increase the purchasing power of the working class.
On the other hand, the private sector credit growth increased to 13.97 percent in November, 2022 due to the installation of industries in new economic zones, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
