Covid-19, Bangladesh budget 20-21 and open public debt

Image collected
The Bangladesh government announced its twelve-monthly budget on June 11   amid  the Covid-19 pandemic crisis  with still soaring virus infections and  the infection curve showing no sign of flattening. It's estimated that the contamination could reach 123,000 by the finish of the month (June). By Thursday, June 18, the quantity of Covid-19 cases previously exceeded 100,000 in the united states (FE, June 19).

Furthermore, the covid-19 pandemic possesses exposed the fault lines of the country's fragile healthcare program. Soaring amounts of infections will bring about pressing millions into poverty as the united states is once again reimposing zone-sensible lockdowns. The reimposed lockdowns will further more weaken the economy. Now with an inadequate cultural safety net, people more often than not are counting on relatives, persons and charities for economic and material help. 

Given the severe nature of the crisis and also to get a far better informed understanding of the problem, the announcement of finances could have been delayed  before end of the entire year as may be the case with some other countries. But the Bangladesh government seems to have felt self-confident enough in getting the total grasp  of the  pandemic crisis  and its own economic and financial implications enabling it to provide the budget.

Definitely, once in a life health crisis demands the mobilisation of additional resources to supply immediate assistance to the damaged population whose lives and livelihood have been disrupted, in most cases actually destroyed while trying to keep carefully the economy afloat to the extent it's possible.

The health crisis is causing income losses for the working population and additional accelerating poverty among the poor. Weaknesses in household intake, business investment and productivity  are now clearly visible and these key factors are now holding back financial growth. Also, falling efficiency is the direct outcome of lack of investment, and in most cases, capital shallowing. In this economic environment  establishing macroeconomic parameters can be very challenging.

The crisis has once more revealed the vulnerabilities and inequities inherent in today's advancement model pursued by Bangladesh. Of particular concern is 50 million personnel in the informal sector whose livelihood is still under serious threat. Likewise, livelihood of employees in the formal sector  has now hit harder as lockdowns continue. Only unconditional income transfer corresponding to the minimum amount wage can ameliorate their monetaray hardship.

The Covid-19 is triggering the economy to slowdown that may mean a dent to government income similarly and  increased spending requirements on the other. This evolved economic scene will cause what may be referred to as 'parameter alterations'. As the government really cannot however get yourself a firm cope with on how big is decline in financial activity and how quickly it could recover, all of the estimates will tend to be guesstimates.

The impact of Covid-19 has caused the budget bigger in proportions this financial year, and is likely to be even many bigger in subsequent financial year as unemployment rises and output further declines. A  'V' shaped recovery is  virtually all unlikely. Therefore, the fiscal response will be continue to grow, and there is absolutely no alternative apart from mounting the wanted fiscal response to the looming monetary crisis due to the pandemic. In line with the World Lender (WB) estimate GDP could plunge to 2-3 % in 2019-20 and fiscal deficit soar to 7.7 % of GDP.

The finance minister rolled  out the budget with an outlay of Tk 568,000 crore for the financial year 2020-21. Excluding foreign grants, the  budget deficit stands at TK 190,000 crore accounting for 6 % of GDP. The spending budget document supplied a revised GDP development estimate for the monetary 12 months 2019-20  at 5.2 %, a downward change from the initial estimate of 8.2 %.  However, it projected  8.2 % growth rate for another financial year (2020-21).

The country happens to be reeling under severe negative economic and social impact arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The spending budget allocated TK 29,692 crore for the health care sector. This represents an increase  by 23 %  from the revised allocation of TK 23,692 crore for the fiscal year 2019-20. The spending plan earmarked TK 10,000 crore exclusively  to  provide crisis  response to  cope with the pandemic.

The finance minister also announced the monetary recovery packages which   stood at TK103,117 crore equal to 3.7 % of GDP. The minister as well provided a number of strategic insurance policy initiatives  to manage the negative monetary fallouts due to the pandemic. They involve discouraging high class expenditures (not so clear what constitutes high class or not really) and prioritising  general public expenditure to create jobs. Also, interest subsidy  for businesses, growth of the social secureness  net and increased money supply are also elements of  those strategic coverage initiatives.

The increased budget allocation for the healthcare sector and the stimulus packages announced  are commendable and steps in the proper direction. But presented the scale of the crisis, these allocations can only be looked at as stopgap measures instead of long term measures, in particular to shore up the general public healthcare system and to create a far more expansive and inclusive cultural reliability network. The lessons of this pandemic must be learned quickly and today's crisis as well  presents an possibility to rethink methods to better deliver health care and welfare spending.

The projected growth rate at 8.2 % for the financial year 2020-21 appears over optimistic. Because of the declining RMG exports (13 % contribution to GDP)  and remittance inflows (9 % contribution to GDP), lower household consumption (the highest contributor to GDP) and declining exclusive expenditure along with broader economic disruption due to the pandemic, the way the minister could anticipate an identical growth outcome just like the one in 2018-19 (a standard year) remains puzzling.

Bangladesh is possibly going right through the most economically challenging period since its independence. As well, there is absolutely no semblance between your projected growth charge of 8.2 % and that projected by a multilateral organization just like the World Bank (WB) which projected a rise rate to maintain the number between 1.2 % and 2.9 per cent for 2020-21.

In the latest record published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on June 18, 2020, it  predicted that  emerging Asian economies (i.e., growing countries in Asia) would grow by 0.1 % this season (2020), slowest since 1961. Next day ( June 19, 2020), the ADB  released another analysis which warned that Covid-19 threatened top 10 % off global productivity. The study further indicated that the disaster was likely to be even more devastating than previously expected.

As well, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected a poor progress outcome for the global economy, shrinking by 3 per cent this year (2020).  OECD chief economist Laurence Boone expressed the viewpoint that economic activity across OECD countries collapsed  and by 20 to 30 per cent  in some member countries. GDP in OECD countries are expected to decline by 7.1 per cent this year. Therefore, it remains a shock how Bangladesh can perform the projected progress of 8.2 % within the next financial year.

The estimated earnings collection for the coming fiscal year  is TK 378,000 crore but the total outlay stands at Tk 568,000 crore leaving a finances deficit of TK 190,000 crore. This fiscal deficit will now enhance the already accumulated open public debt (government debt) which is currently equivalent 34 per cent of GDP (of which 38 % are external credit debt).The Debt-GDP ratio is likely to rise to 38.3 per cent by 2022-23.This figure is relatively low in comparison with the united states at 84 per cent, the Eurozone 69 per cent and Japan at 154 %. If outcome falls sharply and the deficit grows, the debt-GDP ratio for Bangladesh will climb up.

In Bangladesh budget deficit is financed through borrowing from interior and exterior sources, foreign grants and bonds.  Bangladesh does not have  deep and liquid bond markets, rendering it rather not powerful. The finance minister did explain that the federal government would increase cash supply while mitigating any inflationary strain on the economy. Now what this 'increase in money supply' means isn't totally clear; it really is assumed printing money using the government's to do so. But that runs the chance of depreciation of the currency. For a trade dependent region like Bangladesh, this can boost inflation considerably. Likewise, fiscal deficits can widen the existing account deficit and force up interest rates.

George Soros features suggested a fairly easy way out for the European Union (EU) to get out of  the existing crisis by advertising 'perpetual bonds' on which the principal does not need to be repaid (although this can be repurchased or redeemed at the issuer's discretion). We might call this the Soros Paradigm of Fiscal Deficit Financing. 

Regarding Bangladesh, application the Soros Paradigm will simply involve Bangladesh Bank to get government debt equivalent to the budget deficit necessary to react to the pandemic crisis and write that off.

Policy makers in Bangladesh are confronted with very hard policy options to safeguard people from the pandemic with an extremely fragile healthcare program. At the same  time the government is normally striving to mitigate economic fallouts from public distancing, lockdowns and exterior economic shocks.  Which will require mobilising information both internally and externally and must determine where the government can greatest spend the money within the framework of a broader countrywide recovery and stabilisation strategy or more specifically framing an exit approach.

However, the long-term economic effect of Covid-19 depends on the  extent of period that will be necessary to end the economic freeze. If the  IMF and the WB forecasts will be correct, the procedure of recovery will need time, but the most detrimental fears for growing countries like Bangladesh have not but been realised. For Bangladesh today, the challenge will be once the virus can be brought in order, to accelerate inclusive growth in the recovery phase.

For Bangladesh, this is a critical time for the market. Economic recovery is likely to be a long drawn process to make contact with where in fact the economy was prior to the crisis. That demands fiscal policy  to play a significant role in managing the economical cycle than it has been the case during the past. Under the current conditions, the scope for employing monetary policy (i.e., interest) to stimulate the market has become extremely limited for a variety of reasons.

This raises the problem of growing public debt. There happen to be divergent sights on public debt levels and their sustainability from financial and financial operations perspectives (some have been previously dealt with  in this posting). However, we must consider the composition of credit debt instead of just focusing on the aggregate degrees of debt. What concerns is not how much is borrowed, but how and where it really is spent. When there is  something showing for deficit spending, in that case there is a case for public borrowing. As of this critical point in time, which will need keeping the fiscal stimulus heading until restoration is assured. Once mission is accomplished, it really is rolled back.
Source: https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Tags :

Share this news on:

Previous Story

Trending Topics

Archive