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Govt mulls measures to face losing trade competitiveness

UNB, Dhaka
Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said the government is considering measures to face the losing competitiveness in trade amid heavy devaluation of currencies against US dollar by major trading partners.
"We’re losing competition against the trading partners especially with India, Pakistan and China in Asia as their currencies were devalued against US dollar," he told reporters after a meeting of the Coordination Committee on reviewing budget at the finance ministry yesterday.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, Secretaries to the Finance, Planning, Internal Resources Division (IRD), Economic Relations Division (ERD) and senior officials concerned were present at the meeting.
“Measures will have to be taken to face the situation. That's what we re now thinking about," said Muhith, expressing dissatisfaction over misquotes by media that he had hinted depreciation of taka.
He did not make it clear whether the “measures" to revive trade competitiveness would be beyond administering the exchange rate of taka against the greenback. But, he made it clear that the free-float market would continue its function to determine the exchange rate.
Fund managers suggested lowering interest rate on bank loans to stimulate imports in the productive sector and create more
demand for the greenback, as a strategy to drag down the value of taka against dollar and make exports competitive, according to a survey by the news agency.
Replying to a question, Muhith said Bangladesh Bank recently purchased USS 300 million from the market and released them back to the market, infusing no impact on the exchange rate.
About yesterday's meeting he said they reviewed the budgetary targets for the current fiscal year and discussed the budgetary allocations for the next fiscal year.
Replying to a question, the minister said the country's economic indicators were performing better than any other countries in South Asia. He was hopeful about achieving 6 percent GDP growth this fiscal, which is 0.5 percentage point lower than the budgetary target of 6.5 percent.
He revised down the GDP estimate on apprehension that the global recession might affect the economic growth to some extent lately, though the economy remained immune so far.
“I'll make a statement on the overall economic performance in the next session of parliament,” he said in response to a question.
Replying to another question, Muhith said the government borrowing from the banking system still remained within the budgetary target.
"Private sector credit would be hampered if government borrowing increases,” he added.