The impacts of COVID-19 on the country’s economic growth, job losses and upsurge in poverty are expected to be large, observed an economist.
Though the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Bangladesh was projected, before the outbreak of virus, to grow by 8.20 per cent in the current fiscal year (FY20), it may decline by 2.0 to 3.0 percentage points, he analysed.
“That is economic growth may settle somewhere between 5.0 per cent to 6.0 per cent,” said Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker, chairman of South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM).
His projection is revealed in the April 2020 issue of Thinking Aloud, a monthly analytical newsletter of the Dhaka-based think-tank, released on Wednesday.
Dr Khondker’s article titled ‘COVID-19: Economic perils and the next budget’ was included in the latest issue of Thinking Aloud where he said: “COVID-19 has virtually stalled all economic activities all over the world. The countries as well as multi-lateral agencies have already started to estimate the economic and social costs of COVID-19.”
Quoting several estimate of economic slowdown in countries like the United States of America and India, he added: “Bangladesh's economy will not be spared.”
Dr Khondker, also a professor of economics at University of Dhaka, argued that reduction in economic growth and rise in jobless rate inevitably lead to a sharp increase in the poverty rate.
To counter the economic downturn, he also outlined some measures in the article.
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