Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali Friday affirmed the nation that inflation, which turned out to be one of the major challenges for the government, would come down in the coming days due to the steps and measures taken by the government.
He also expressed his high optimism of attaining the targeted 6.75 percent growth in the next fiscal year (FY25).
“We’ve taken all the necessary measures for controlling inflation and we’re also considering what kind of steps can be taken more in addition to the existing ones in this regard. Due to the various steps, it has been possible to contain inflation at around 9 percent,” he said.
The Finance Minister said this while addressing a post budget press conference at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital Friday.
Earlier Thursday, the Finance Minister placed a Taka 7,97,000 crore national budget for the coming fiscal with a prime focus on maintaining economic stability and augmenting steps to materialise the government’s “Smart Bangladesh” vision.
Planning Minister Major General (retd) Abdus Salam, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun, Agriculture Minister Md Abdus Shaheed, LGRD Minister Md Tajul Islam, Housing and Public Works Minister RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman, State Minister for Finance Waseqa Ayesha Khan, State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, Finance Division Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder accompanied and assisted the Finance Minister at the press conference.
Besides, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad A Arafat, secretaries and other senior officials were present at the press conference.
Reminding the audience that the Awami League government was able to contain inflation within two years of the assumption of office in 2009 when the inflation was very high, Ali said, “I want to inform you firmly that inflation will come down in the future due to the various steps taken by the government.”
Ali said in a bid to cushion the commoners from the impact of inflation, various operations including OMS and family cards would continue and coverage of those would be widened further considering their necessity.
He said since containing inflation is the highest priority of the government, the contractionary policy of the government would continue for a few more days and at the same time the government would remain cautious so that the growth is not affected too much.
Mentioning that all kinds of support would continue to ensure smooth operations of the industry, agriculture and services sector, the Finance Minister said, “Due to such steps, the GDP growth reached 5.82 % in the outgoing fiscal year (FY24) despite contractionary measures and we’ll be able to attain 6.75% growth in the next fiscal.”
Answering to a question, Ali said hopefully inflation would come down at the end of this year while the government efforts would continue in this regard. “We’ve kept the budget size not so expanded so that no pressure is put on the common people.”
Referring to the budget speech, Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman termed the proposed budget for FY25 as very ‘well considered’ and ‘well balanced’ where efforts would be there to contain the growth and at the same time attention would be there so that other sectors of the economy become more strengthened.
“The overall budget size and policy directives has been clearly specified in the budget,” he added.
