Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith fears the current spate of political unrest will stop Bangladesh from achieving its targeted GDP growth despite a toughened government stance to tackle the violence that has claimed more than 75 lives in the past five weeks.
“Even in December, I was fully hopeful about reaching 7.2 per cent GDP growth … but now I am highly doubtful about reaching the target” he told a late Saturday briefing, while financial analysts feared the unrest would hurt many small traders and people who earn their livelihood on a day-to-day basis.
Muhith said that though the nationwide non-stop transport blockade enforced by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since January 6 was relatively insignificant in the capital Dhaka, it severely affected activities in districts that are “far away from the centre of politico-administrative controls”.
Dhaka newspapers reported his comments, the first such formal government statement on economy since the start of the unrest last month, while one more arson victim, a trucker, succumbed to his wounds and two more suspected saboteurs were shot dead in “encounters” with elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in central Comilla and western Jessore early today.
The trucker assistant died in northwestern Bogra after a week of struggle for life while the Prothom Alo newspaper reported more than 100 firebomb victims, mostly bus passengers, were being treated at in burn units of five major state-run facilities alone including Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Quoting the doctors, the report said several of the arson victims could be crippled for life while many of them were made vulnerable to cancer because of exposure to dangerous substances.
RAB officials said the suspected saboteurs who were killed in “gunfights” early today were activists of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, a crucial ally of BNP and were wanted on previous murder charges.
The reported predawn encounter came as the Jamaat activists attacked a police van with firebombs in Comilla, injuring a policeman who retaliated with gunshots and injuring two of the saboteurs, who are now being treated at a local hospital under security vigil.
According to the Daily Star, with the two latest casualties, at least 22 suspected saboteurs were killed in what officials are calling “encounters” with law enforcement agencies.
But the finance minister yesterday called the current unrest plain acts of terrorism having “no links with politics” while Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina earlier yesterday equated the opposition activities with that of Daesh.
“Her [Zia’s] perception of good and evil has been diluted. She has gone mad,” Hasina said.
Octogenarian Muhith, a civil servant turned politician, however, sought the intervention of “sensible people in the BNP” to end the violence as “what is happening in the name of politics is entirely enmity to the nation”.
Officials, meanwhile, said deployment of law enforcement agency members for additional hours to deter violence are another financial burden.
“The law enforcement agencies in the past one month sought an Tk100 crore [Dh47 million] extra amount,” a finance ministry official told Gulf News on the sidelines while Muhith said expenditures for maintaining law and order had gone up sharply.
Asked when he expected the situation to improve, the finance minister said he had no idea, “maybe, one week. But I don’t know, rather I want to know from you [journalists]”.
Economy
Bangladesh has witnessed a largely steady growth rate of above 6 per cent in the past decade with robust export performance, rising remittance and buoyant foreign-exchange reserves when the per capita income doubled to $1,190 (Dh4,371) while analysts say the GDP could have grown further if the politics favoured the economy more in the past.
The country set its target of reaching more than 6 per cent growth in 2014-2015 fiscal ending in June with economists expecting Bangladesh to reach the goal as until the beginning of the unrest last month, coinciding with the anniversary of the divisive January 5, 2014, elections, which were boycotted by BNP.
“The current unrest, however, may not eventually affect much the overall economy, but in micro level, the poor people would be marginalised further. We fear it to severely affect the small entrepreneurs and financially perish the smaller traders or who live on immediate income,” financial analyst Syeda Shahnewaj Lotika told Gulf News.
The economic indicators suggested the unrest has increased food inflation in the past one month although the overall inflation in January came down, exposing people with low incomes to a state of economic insecurity as well.
Planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal earlier this week said on a point-to-point basis, inflation was down from 6.11 per cent in December, but food inflation increased to 6.07 per cent in January from 5.86 per cent.
“Food inflation rose as transportation of commodities has been disrupted due to the current situation of the country,” he said, adding that food-laden trucks were being attacked almost every day across Bangladesh while ‘innocent citizens are burnt to death’, in the name of blockades and shutdowns.
“This is not politics. It’s terrorism. It has to be stopped anyhow,” he said.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCI) meanwhile came up with an updated estimate of economic losses caused by the unrest, saying the businesses incurred a loss of worth Taka 68335.8 crore while they found the ready-made garments, transport, agriculture, housing and tourism as worst affected sectors.
Another chamber estimate suggested the country has lost $10 billion in physical damages since the blockade was launched affecting the productions, incomes and profits.
-Gulf News
