The assessment of key macroeconomic correlates of Bangladesh being carried out by the CPD as part of its flagship IRBD programme comes at a crucial juncture in the country’s development journey. The measures required to correct some of the long-standing as also the newly emerging disquieting trends informing the management of the economy warrants in depth analysis to arrive at possible solutions. As is known, the Bangladesh economy had to face formidable difficulties owing to the adverse fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when the economy was coming out of the worst impacts of the pandemic, the situation was exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war which started in late February 2022 and was manifested in high global commodity prices, high imported inflation, and supply chain disruptions. While these exogenous factors have definitely left their footprints, embedded structural weaknesses, sub-optimal policies, lax policy implementation, lack of good governance, and inability to implement the required reforms have compounded the difficulties facing macroeconomic management in recent times. In July 2022, CPD had cautioned that these weaknesses would aggravate the pressure points in managing the Bangladesh economy.
Author: CPD IRBD 2023 Team
Publication Period: March 2024
ISBN: 978-984-98096-8-5