Bangladesh's economy is expected to grow 6.7 percent in the coming fiscal year starting in July, up from 6 percent in the current fiscal year, the finance minister said on Sunday. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said the 2010/11 budget would be around 1.30 trillion taka ($18.7 billion), 14 percent bigger than the current year's 1.14 trillion taka.
He said the budget would aim to achieve 6.7 percent growth and keep inflation within 6.5 percent. The minister said improving power and energy sector and controlling prices of essentials would be top priorities for the government's next budget.
"We would allocate bigger money to finance top sectors that are essential to push our economy forward, and make sustained efforts to lower inflation and reduce poverty," the minister told reporters. Annual inflation in January picked up to 8.99 percent from 8.51 percent the previous month on a spike in food prices, which is a major concern for the government with 40 percent of the country's population still living on less than $1 a day and spending 70 percent of their income on food.
The budget is the second for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, which won office with promises to improve utilities, cut prices and produce and supply more energy.
The impoverished south Asian country is currently facing 1,500 megawatts of electricity shortages a day which the World Bank estimates costs it up to 2 percent in GDP growth each year.
Muhith last week said investors felt dismayed over the country's poor state of energy supplies.
The minister also hoped the flow of investment would rise in the next fiscal year, but he gave no figure. About 80 percent of electricity is produced from natural gas, but at present the country faces up to 300 million cubic feet of gas shortages a day, officials say.