The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Disagreeing with IMF apprehension about economic slowdown due to adversities, Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday ruled out any big setback in the GDP following floods and high inflation "Only a quarter of this fiscal year has passed off, and it's too early to say anything about the GDP growth at this stage," he told reporters at Zia International Airport responding to a volley of questions about the country's economic health.

The Finance Adviser returned home after a fortnight-long visit to the United States. In the US, he attended meetings of the World Bank and IMF. Expressing optimism, he listed some positive economic indicators, including 15-16 per cent export growth, robust growth of remittance and the import of raw materials in July-August was on the up.

When his attention was drawn to the comments and observations by British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said nobody in the IMF had informed him that the GDP growth of Bangladesh would be 5.5 per cent this fiscal.

Recently, Anwar Choudhury and the IMF said that GDP growth of Bangladesh would not exceed 5.5 per cent because of the recent devastating flooding across the country. "We cannot tell anything about flood damage right now. Anyone can tell anything from their own perception, but you have to have concrete statistics when you are talking about GDP," he replied to the projections given by the donor-country diplomat and the multilateral donor agency.

Replying to a query, Dr Aziz denied having any negotiation with the IMF regarding a new agreement.

The Finance Adviser stuck to his guns over the overheated domestic market as he again blamed external pressure for recent inflation. "There is no linkage of monitoring system about fluctuation of inflation on the market prices," he said.