Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday (May 31, 2023) said that the government is making every effort to keep Bangladesh's economy alive despite the global economic recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war. The prime minister said this while responding to a tabled question of Awami League MP elected from Chattogram MA Latif for PM’s question-answer session. She said the government has been able to quickly bring the country's economy to the pre-Covid high growth trend dealing with the recession, inflation and instability in the global economy caused by the pandemic and the war. Read more: President Erdogan and PM Hasina vow to take Dhaka-Ankara ties to new height “Amid the crisis over Covid, our growth in the financial year 2019-20 was 3.45 percent which was one of the highest in the world for that period,” she claimed. She said that due to the various steps taken by the government to boost the economy, the GDP growth in the financial year 2020-21 increased by 6.94 percent. “It further increased to 7.10 percent in FY 2021-22.” Hasina also highlighted various measures taken by the government to keep the economy of the government alive. Read more: PM calls for more Swedish investment as H&M boss calls on her These included government expenditure rationalisation, social protection, subsidies in electricity, energy and agriculture sectors, export incentives, rise in remittance inflow, monetary policy etc, she said. In response to the question of Jatiya Party MP elected from Dhaka Syed Abu Hossain, the prime minister highlighted the various steps taken by the government to control the prices of daily commodities and said as a result of the government's activities, it has been possible to control the prices of essentials and the poor people are benefiting from it. In response to the question of Jatiya Party MP elected from Pirojpur Rustam Ali Farazi, the she said that it will be possible to start rail traffic on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga section of the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project by September 2023 and the Jessore section from June 2024. Read more: Work together to regain lost glory in science and technology: PM Hasina to Muslim community In response to reserved seat MP Kha Mamata Lovely's question, the prime minister said that 555,134 families have been rehabilitated through the Ashrayan project.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said her government has been trying its best to keep the country's economy vibrant even though the world is going through an economic recession. “When the whole world is passing through a recession caused by the Covid-19, the Ukraine war and others, our effort is to keep our economy vibrant. We’re trying our best to do so,” she said. The premier was addressing a commemorative discussion on the death of her former political adviser Dr SA Malek through a virtual platform from her official residence Ganabhaban. Bangabandhu Parishad arranged the discussion in the city’s Kalabagan area to commemorate its president Dr  Malek, who died on December 06, 2022. Hasina said her government has been building Bangladesh with the ideals of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Read: Sale of antibiotics without doctor’s prescription must be stopped: PM “We have been able to transform Bangladesh into a developing country. One day this Bangladesh will be built as a developed and prosperous country," she said. The PM recalled the contribution of Dr Malek in implementing the ideology of Bangabandhu and spreading the spirit of the Liberation War.  “He was always very sincere to implement the ideology of Bangabandhu and bear the spirit of the Liberation War,” she said. She said Dr Malek is one of thr few persons who played the key role to put forth the ideology of Bangabandhu before the people. “He put forth the ideology of the Father of the Nation before the people even amid many adversities,” she added. The premier said Bangabandhu Parishad was formed to protest the assassination of Bangabandhu and raise his ideology before the people after the 1975 15th August carnage.  "Dr SA Malek is one of them who played a key role to put forth the ideology of Bangabandhu before the people," she said. Read: PM unveils Duranta Biplob’s book on Bangabandhu   Hasina said the late leader played a great role in making the people familiar with the term of "Second Revolution" launched by the Father of the Nation. She said Dr Malek and former Dhaka City mayor late Mohammad Hanif played the most significant role in electing her the President of Awami League (in 1981) as they created public opinion and took it to the party forum. The PM said she even scolded Dr  Malek for insisting time and again she became president of the Awami League. Noting that Dr Malek is a politically conscious person,  Hasina said he had a role in each of the country's democratic and progressive movements. Recalling the contribution of Dr Malek in the Liberation War, she said, "He fought with great bravery in the battlefield during the War of Liberation in 1971 by taking arms." In this connection, she recalled the contribution of Dr Matin Chowdhury and others to form the Bangabandhu Parishad. Former Dhaka University Vice Chancellor and also acting President of Bangabandhu Parishad Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique presided over the function. Senior journalist and presidium member of Bangabandhu Parishad Ajit Kumar Sarker presented a keynote paper titled "Dr S A Malek: Courage Personified and Shaped by Bangabandhu's Ideals" at the function. Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman, former Rajshahi University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Md Abdul Khalek and Dr SA Malek’s son and also physician at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Sheikh Abdullah Al Mamun, spoke at the discussion.

Recent fall in inward remittances, earnings from exports, and a looming global recession are all signalling that the external account crisis will be prolonged further, they say. They projected that around $20 to $25 billion worth of foreign currency has been consumed in different forms by informal transactions, which are not recorded at any official level. Because of this, the depth of the foreign exchange crisis is remaining less understood and unaddressed. they say.  Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, a macro-economist and a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told UNB that to understand the magnitude of the problem it is important to see how it works or does not work in a complex market of foreign currency. “We should take note of it that a big volume of the foreign currency, I mean, US dollar is used for financing consumption of goods and services overseas as well as third-party cross-border payment for smuggled items such as gold and cattle,” he said. “Moreover, illicit financial flow is also taking place from over-invoicing in the private sector transactions and public sector projects,” he said. In line with these unrecorded and informal, and often illicit foreign exchange transactions, the monetary policy in general and foreign exchange regulation, in particular, have limited institutional effectiveness with regard to external balance management, he pointed out. Debapriya said Bangladesh is now a $500 billion economy, and managing such an emerging macro-economy with a fast-changing global scenario demands institutional reforms to swiftly oversee the forex market. As the government negotiates balance of payment support from the International Monetary Fund (MF) such reforms addressing the informal transactions of foreign currency will become a major concern to deal with, he said. Read: Market-based foreign exchange rate may be introduced soon: Finance Minister This will also need complementary trade and investment policy reforms, he added. Though the economy is expanding, the institutional reforms and capacity is not being enhanced accordingly, he said. He said that the World Bank has rightly predicted that unless massive reforms are done Bangladesh’s economic growth would slip in the face of impact of global trade competition. Dr Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, an economist and specialist in applied international trade, told UNB that falling remittances by 25 percent and export falling by over 6 percent is “a warning for Bangladesh’s forex market.” He said Bangladesh will get an advantage slightly from the falling prices of fuel, edible oil and other commodities in the global market due to a recession. The use of forex for import payments will be decreased at the same time, affecting Bangladesh’s export income, and the trade deficit will also widen then, he said. In the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2022-23, the trade deficit stood at $4.55billion. As the export income is less than the import spending, this large trade deficit appeared at the beginning of the fiscal year. At the same time, the deficit in the current account balance of foreign transactions also exceeded by $1.5 billion. Also read: Foreign exchange rate stable after Bangladesh Bank tightens spending According to Bangladesh Bank, in the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year, goods worth $12.69 billion have been imported against exports worth $8.13 billion. This has created a trade deficit of $4.55 billion. The deficit volume will widen more as the export in last month (September) fell by 6 percent. Bangladesh Bank is selling US dollars from the reserves in continuation of the last fiscal year to bring 'stability' to the forex market. The central bank sold $2.57 billion from reserves in two months (July-August) and of the current FY 2022-23. The central bank sold $7.67 billion from reserves in the FY 2021-22 to stabilize the forex market. Bangladesh had never sold so many dollars from the reserve in a single fiscal year earlier. However, in the previous financial year (2020-21), Bangladesh Bank bought a record $8 billion to keep the forex market stable during the falling trend of imports during the Covid-19 pandemic.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged the international community to act immediately to protect the world from global recession.

Bangladesh might be one of only two ASEAN and South Asian economies to register positive growth in 2020 when the world is almost certainly bound to a devastating recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic

Earth planet is upset and convulsed at the guerrilla attacks and blazes of an invisible infectious disease smaller than bacteria titled Coronavirus, also identified as COVID-19 by WHO, which has in the interim confirmed worldwide 4.3 million cases with at least more than 300000 deaths and 1.7 million recoveries. First defined in detail in the 1960s, the coronavirus gets its name from a distinctive Latin corona, meaning ‘Crown’ of sugary-proteins, that project from the envelope surrounding the particle.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq on Wednesday called for joint efforts of public and private organisations to tackle the coronavirus outbreak in Bangladesh.

U.S. and European economists are predicting a recession as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

A global recession – perhaps of record dimensions – is a near certainty due to the COVID19 pandemic, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.