The position of basic macroeconomic indexes including revenue collection, remittances, export growth, annual development programme (ADP) expenditure and money supply in the first quarter (July-September) of the running 2022-23 fiscal was satisfactory.
This was stated by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday in a report placed in the House on the progress of the implementation 2022-23 budget in the financial year’s first quarter.
“Revenue collection was done as per the target, a positive trend was seen in import and export income, and as a result, I am hoping that we will be able to attain our desired target in the current budget,” he said.
He mentioned that the revenue collection registered 19.33 per cent in the first quarter which was 18.72 per cent in the last fiscal, reports UNB.
The public expenditure was 11.14 per cent against 11.90 per cent in the same period of 2021-22 fiscal while the implementation rate of ADP was 8.55 per cent against 8.26 per cent.
The finance minister said that due to the increase in import expenditure, there was a deficit in the current account balance that was reduced to USD 36.47 billion in the reserve on September 30, 2022, which was USD 46.22 billion in the same period of 2021.
The growth in the remittances inflow was 4.89 per cent against 19.44 per cent in the previous 2021-22 fiscal.
The export income growth rate was 13.38 per cent against 11.37 per cent during the same period of the last fiscal.
“The positive trend of export trading growth will play an important variable in advancing our economy,” he said.
He said that the import expenditure (C&F) increased by 11.67 per cent which was 47.56 per cent in the same time of the last fiscal.
He said that the normalisation of economic activities after the COVID-19 period and the significant rise in the import of intermediary and capital machineries led to a huge hike in import expenditure.
“But, currently avoidance of luxury items and exercise of austerity by the government caused a decrease in import expenditure,” he said.
The LC opening during the July-September tenure in 2022 was USD 18.58 billion which was 4.57 per cent less than the same period of the previous fiscal.
As per the report, annual average inflation was 5.50 per cent in September 2021 while it increased 6.96 per cent in September 2022. On the other hand, the point-to-point inflation in September 2021 was 5.59 per cent, while it increased to 9.10 per cent in 2022.
Regarding the budget deficit Mustafa Kamal said that the estimated deficit is 5.51 per cent of the GDP. For deficit financing 2.22 per cent sill come from external sources while 3.29 per cent would be mitigated from domestic sources.
He said that to contain the pressure from inflation, the central bank took the path of contractionary monetary policy.
The minister said that thanks to timely steps from the government it was possible to contain the inflation forced by the price hike of fuel oil price and food items due to the Russia-Ukraine War, and the depreciation of the Taka against the US Dollar.