Inflation to drop below 9% within Dec: Finance secy

Finance Secretary Dr Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder has expressed his optimism that the general point-to-point inflation rate would come down below 9 per cent within December.

"The lone challenge before our economy is now to control inflation. But, through contractionary monetary and fiscal policy, we've been able to

overcome that to a large extent. The way prices of food items have declined as the food inflation was reduced by 0.5 per cent last month, I'm hopeful that the inflation rate would come down below 9 per cent within this December," he said.

The Finance Secretary said this while addressing a seminar on VAT marking the National VAT Day held at the NBR Bhaban in the capital's Agargaon area on Sunday.

Dr Mozumder also hoped that the general point-to-point inflation rate would remain within the fiscal target of 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal year

(FY24) while the target for containing inflation in the next fiscal year would remain below six per cent.

Noting that the country's economic recovery during the post-Covid-19 period was fast, he said, "We've taken some contractionary measures beforehand in the wake of various global challenges. Austerity is being pursued in public expenditure while the macroeconomic strength of Bangladesh is also being lauded across the globe."

Mentioning that the estimation for deficit budget in the current fiscal year is Tk 2,61,000 crore against the overall budget size of Tk 7,61,000 crore, Dr Mozumder said the government has to take loans from various sources to meet the budget deficit in this regard.

He said that the government is trying to take loans from various international sources rather than relying less on domestic sources so that the local businesses are not affected.

"But, we'll have to keep in mind that the limitations on taking international loans and grants will continue to grow considering our graduation from the LDCs," he said, urging the NBR to become more attentive in generating more revenues.

Citing that automation is very important for creating a tax culture in the country, the Finance Secretary said that the government would allocate more funding to the NBR for pursuing the efforts towards automation.

/KN/