Others see growth in Bangladesh, local experts don’t

DHAKA - Global financial and credit rating agencies have drawn a positive picture of Bangladesh’s economy, but domestic experts see signs of stagnation and slowdown in investment.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Monday said Bangladesh’s economy would grow by 5 percent in the current fiscal because of sluggish export growth.

Credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service also assigned sovereign rating to Bangladesh with ’stable’ economic outlook.

The Moody’s, one of the two agencies engaged by the government, gave Bangladesh a Ba3 rating and placed the country in the 13th position of its rating order, it announced here Monday.

The company has 21 rating categories ranging between Aaa and C.

Another agency, Standard and Poor’s, last week gave Bangladesh a BB-1, which is also the 13th position of their rating order and said the economy is stable.

However, two Bangladeshi economists saw signs of stagnation in the economy with significant slowdown in external trade and industrial investments, New Age newspaper said Tuesday.

A belated impact of global recession caused the slowdown and the economy continued to face stagnation because of a power and energy crisis, they said at a programme organised by Shamunnay, a NGO.

“Some recent indicators show signs of stagnation in Bangladesh economy. Declines in exports and investments have mainly caused the slowdown,” said Selim Raihan, editor of Bangladesh Economic Outlook, a quarterly journal.

Khandaker Ibrahim Khaled, former deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, added: “Even if the economy has not come to a clear stagnation yet, there has been worrisome slowdown.”