In the July-September quarter of the current financial year 2024-25, the country's economy has overcome persistent instability. There has also been improvement in some sectors. During this period, imports, exports, expatriate income and foreign exchange reserves increased. However, there are problems like high inflation, shortfall in revenue collection, reduction in government expenditure, slowdown in employment and investment, said the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).
In its quarterly review of the economy, the MCCI said that the domestic credit flow of the country decreased in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. At that time, the growth rate of credit flow was 9.10 percent. It was 12.89 percent during the same period of the previous year.
According to MCCI's review, the growth in private sector credit flow among domestic credit was 9.20 percent in the July-September quarter. It was 9.69 percent in the same period of the previous year. That is, the private credit flow has not decreased that much. But during this period the debt and expenditure of the public sector has reduced a lot.
MCCI showed that the growth of government borrowing in the first quarter of the current financial year was 8.75 percent. It was 26.27 percent during the same period of the previous year. In other words, the growth rate has decreased a lot in this case. The government's target for the first part of the current financial year was 14.2 percent growth. In other words, the government has borrowed less than the target.
In this situation, the growth of Bangladesh Bank's broad money (total money supply of the country) has also decreased. Broad money growth was 7.88 percent in the July-September quarter; It was 8.96 percent in the same period of the previous year.
Bangladesh has exported goods worth 11.66 billion or 1 thousand 160 million dollars in the July-September quarter of the current financial year. In the same period of the previous financial year which was 10.83 billion or 1 thousand 83 million dollars. That is, the export growth in the first quarter of this year has been 7.62 percent. However, in September, the last month of the quarter, exports fell by 5.80 percent compared to August.
Imports increased by 1.64 percent in the July-September quarter. During this period the total import was 16.17 billion or 1 thousand 617 million dollars. In the same period of the previous year which was 15.91 billion or 1 thousand 591 million dollars.
The flow of remittances or expatriate income increased in the first quarter of the fiscal year. During July-September, the growth of expatriate income in the country has been 33.34 percent. During this period, the total expatriate income came to 654 million 27 million dollars. In September, the last month of the quarter, the growth of expatriate income was 80.22 percent.
Overall, MCCI feels that restoration of law and order situation is now the most urgent priority to bring the economy back to normalcy.
