Bangladesh’s quick economic recovery from the COVID-19 depends on the length of the shutdown, and quality of the pandemic management measures, a senior Asian Development Bank official says.
“The performance of the global economy is another factor. The expected sluggish recovery in the rest of the world will be another headwind for Bangladesh’s economy,” vice president of the Manila-based lender Shixin Chen told the FE in a recent interview.
Mr Chen said Bangladesh’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), growth in the fiscal year 2019-2020 is likely to plunge, but is expected to rebound in FY2021 if the pandemic can be managed well.
He felt that Bangladesh’s economy had the strength to recover quickly when the economic activities would be restarted gradually.
Asked how an ideal economic recovery plan looked like, Mr Chen said after meeting the immediate needs, the next priority could focus on measures for economic recovery and revival.
“With lost income by individuals and businesses alike, the consumption and investments may recover slowly. The government could step up with increased investment to boost aggregate demands,” he added.
“Employment generation, increased food production, trade and commerce promotion, boosting SMEs, and supporting the service sector including aviation and hospitality, infrastructure investments, are critical areas that can be focused on through fiscal measures to help expedite economic recovery,” the ADB senior executive said.
Asked about the fiscal response Bangladesh should adopt to manage the Covid-19 crisis, he said the crisis was still evolving, and it was too early to specify all the fiscal responses that might be needed.
Hailing the current measures taken by Bangladesh, he said the responses coul be decided dynamically and sequentially according to the needs of the situation.
Mr Chen said ADB’s Board of Directors had recently approved US$500 million in aid for Bangladesh’s necessary budgetary expenditure for the Covid-19 pandemic, which is expected to benefit over 15 million poor and vulnerable people.
He said the ADB is committed to supporting Bangladesh’s further needs to deal with and recover from Covid-19 through all possible financial, technical and knowledge solutions.
