Finance Minister asks everyone to exercise restraint in war situation

Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury has urged everyone to exercise restraint to maintain the country’s economic stability in the ongoing war situation in the Middle East. The minister made this call in response to questions from journalists after a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation at the Secretariat on Tuesday (March 24).
What advice did the IMF give in the context of the war? The Finance Minister said, “If you want to know, there is a war context, there are challenges in the banking sector, there are challenges in the capital market, our tax-GDP ratio is at a very low level. What can we do to improve it, these issues have been discussed.”
In response to another question from journalists, the Finance Minister said, the government has been in power for only a month. This one month was the month of Ramadan and the war started in that month. But despite the fuel crisis, there was no problem in transportation. Everyone was able to return home for Eid, rent did not increase and prices of goods remained stable.
He further said, there was no such instability this time as there are problems in the garment sector before Eid every year. Because, these are the result of our economic management. We have taken necessary measures in advance. The Finance Minister further mentioned that due to taking the right decision, the prices of goods remained stable throughout the month of Ramadan. Regarding fuel oil, Amir Khasru said, despite the major oil crisis, no transport was stopped due to lack of oil and the salaries of garment workers were paid on time. There was no instability.
The Finance Minister said, the economy was in a very bad condition until we took office. The programs that are in place to overcome it and the issues mentioned in the election manifesto of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been discussed.
He said, especially to overcome such a situation, we need many reforms, deregulation is needed. The banking sector is in a very bad condition, the stock market is also weak and the tax-GDP ratio is also in a difficult situation. To overcome these, we have to implement the issues mentioned in the manifesto. We have already taken some steps and the rest will be taken soon.
Regarding the ongoing development projects in the country, the Finance Minister said that many projects have stalled due to financial problems. Many projects were stalled during the previous interim government. These need to be revived and for this, reforms are required to bring the economy back to a stable state. Regarding the IMF loan, Amir Khosru said that the matter is ongoing and discussions are underway. There have been discussions on which of the IMF conditions can be implemented and which need to be done step by step. When asked about the IMF loan waiver, the Finance Minister said that this issue will be discussed in the evaluation in July.