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Published : 10 Apr 2026, 01:22 PM
Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury has presented comparisons between Bangladesh’s economy in the last year of the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government led by Khaleda Zia two decades ago with the economy in the last year of the Sheikh Hasina government.
He said that although the size of the economy has increased over the past decade and a half, several structural weaknesses have gradually become apparent.
The finance minister also spoke about the tenure of the interim government in some cases. He made a statement on this issue under Rule 300 in the parliament session chaired by Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad on Friday morning.
According to this rule, a minister can make a statement on important issues in the public interest with the permission of the speaker. There is no opportunity to ask any questions during this time.
Khosru said that the BNP came to power with an absolute majority through the exercise of the people's right to vote in a “free and fair election” and believes in “responsibility, transparency and accountability” to the people.
He described the Awami League government's rule as a time of “fascist government misrule, wrong policies and a ruined economy”.
'Growth has Decreased, Inflation has Increased'
According to the information provided by the finance minister, in the last fiscal year (2005-06) of the late Khaleda Zia-led government, the real GDP growth rate was 6.78 percent. At that time, inflation was 7.17 percent.
He said that by the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year, growth had come down to 4.22 percent, while inflation had risen to 9.73 percent.
The finance minister also highlighted the slowdown in growth in the industrial and agricultural sectors.
According to his data, the growth of the industrial sector in 2005-06 was 10.66 percent, which came down to 3.51 percent in 2023-24. Growth in agriculture decreased from 5.77 percent to 3.30 percent.
Structural Crisis in Employment
Describing the employment situation across the country, Khosru said that due to insufficient jobs being created in the industrial and service sectors, a large portion of the country’s youth has been pushed into agriculture. This has increased pseudo-unemployment and reduced productivity.
He said that although value added in the agricultural sector has decreased by about 4 percent in the last decade, employment in this sector has increased by 4.8 percent. On the other hand, although the contribution of the industrial and service sectors has increased, employment has decreased.
The finance minister said that although the agricultural sector currently contributes 11.6 percent of the total GDP, about 41 percent of the total employment is dependent on this sector. He believes that this situation is indicative of the risk of “growth without job creation”.
