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The decline has led to a pile-up of liquidity. The excess liquidity in the banking system was Tk 231,462 crore in June, up 66 per cent year-on-year.

The Sanem conducted surveys on 500 firms every three months since June last year. Referring to the survey findings, Prof Raihan said the pandemic badly hit private investors, and most of them were yet to make any recovery.

“So, they are not going for any new investment.”

A few garment factories might have gone for expanding their capacity to manufacture personal protective equipment and masks.

“But we have not found any large investment or industrial set-ups,” he said.

The micro, small and medium enterprises have been hit hard by the pandemic. The situation for them worsened because of inadequate support from the government.

Prof Raihan praised the government for announcing the stimulus packages to help the economy absorb the shock. But the outreach of government assistance to the micro, small and medium enterprises was not satisfactory.

Only 9 per cent of micro and small enterprises received funds from the stimulus packages, compared to 30 per cent medium enterprises and 46 per cent larger enterprises.

Mahbubul Alam, president of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “As most of the businesses have been badly affected by the pandemic, they are now on a survival mode.”

“They are busy in recovering the losses, so a majority of them are unwilling to make new investment and expand.”

He said global connectivity had been disrupted in the last one and a half years, slowing the flow of foreign investment to Bangladesh.

He called for proactive roles of Bangladesh’s diplomatic missions abroad to attract foreign investment.

Since the start of the pandemic, economists were in agreement that investment would not pick up unless the coronavirus situation comes under control.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, said: “My position remains unchanged. What we have been apprehending has been validated by the latest data of the BBS.”

Private investment growth had stagnated at around 22 per cent even before the pandemic.

“Covid-19 has worsened the situation,” said Mansur.

“But there have been no efforts on the part of the government to solve the structural weaknesses. It could have carried out various reforms even during the pandemic.”

“As a result, we might go back to the pre-pandemic level after the crisis peters out. But we will not be able to attain sustained green growth post-Covid-19.”

He said the only way for the government to pull the economy out of the pandemic was to accelerate the vaccination programme and enforce containment measures successfully.

“There is no point in talking about growth without vaccines.”

State Minister Alam said the government would do everything possible in terms of financial, economic and monetary management and trade policies to speed up the economic recovery.

“We hope our all-out efforts will accelerate the economic growth, taking it to the pre-pandemic level.”