Govt to set 7.4% GDP growth rate for FY2018

The government plans to set economic growth at 7.4% in the upcoming fiscal year as calm political situation helped the economic activities run smoothly. A meeting of Fiscal Coordination Council and Budget Management Committee is due today which will set the target. The GDP growth of this fiscal year has been fixed at 7.2% as Finance Division revealed revised budget last week. “We are preparing fiscal year 2017-18 national budget with a growth rate of 7.4% but it may be increased after discussion at fiscal coordination council meeting,” a Finance Division official told the Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday. In the next budget management committee meeting, the issue of large amount of loans taken from national saving instruments and borrowing from banking sector in the current fiscal year, the official said. Former Finance Adviser to Caretaker Government AB Mirza Azizul Islam said: “The government projection of 7.4% GDP growth in next fiscal year doesn’t convince me.” Mirza Azizul Islam said there was no signs that the private investment would rise in the country under the current circumstances According to the revised estimation, the government has reduced the bank borrowing target to Tk35,903 crore from  Tk38,938 crore target set under the budget. In the first eight months of FY2016-17, the government’s total non-bank borrowing including savings instrument stood at Tk33,000 crore -- already surpassing the whole year’s target of Tk22,610 crore. But the Finance Division’s loan target from saving instruments were fixed at Tk32,000 crore.