The fuel price hike will hamper the ongoing business recovery of the country from the loss of Covid-19, according to South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem).
Sanem Executive Director Dr Selim Raihan made the remark on Wednesday announcing the results of the organisation’s 6th level survey to verify the confidence of business entities in overcoming Covid-19 setbacks.
Sanem conducted the survey in October on the basis of interviews with entrepreneurs or their representatives from 502 industrial and service organisations.
“We have seen in the survey that all kinds of businesses, big and small, are on the way to recovery from the setbacks of Covid-19,” he said.
According to the results of the survey, as of 30 September of this year, a total of 21% of the institutions are in strong recovery from Covid-19 setbacks. Besides, 52% of the institutions are in moderate recovery while 27% remain in weak recovery phase.
Almost all the manufacturing industries are in growth as compared to the same period of the previous year. However, the recent rise in inflation, falling remittance inflow and rising fuel prices will impede this growth, Dr Selim Raihan added.
He said the increase in transportation and production costs along with the increase in commodities prices would put industry and consumers at risk; people will try to cut costs and recovery will be hampered.
Three months ago, in the 5th phase of the survey, Sanem said that only 9% of the institutions had reached a strong recovery till July. At that time, 64% of business instituitions were in weak recovery.
Adding that entrepreneurs who received the government’s stimulus packages are in a better financial position than those who did not, the Sanem executive director further said: “Those who did not get stimulus are lagging behind. Small entrepreneurs are lagging far behind medium and large-scale entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have also complained about bribery to avail the stimulus package.”
