Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed spoke at a press conference at the Bangladesh Secretariat today. Photo : PID

DHAKA, Aug 12, 2025 (BSS) – Interim government’s Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed today said Bangladesh’s economy in the past one year turned around from the edge of a ditch and gained stability.

“It (economy) is more or less satisfactory,” he told a press conference at the Multipurpose Hall of the Finance Division at Bangladesh Secretariat today also highlighting successes of the government in economic fronts.

Ahmed said from what the interim administration inherited in August last year after an year the economy became stable “although there may be different opinion from some people”.

He said although the economy was on the edge of a ditch during the previous regime, but it did not fell into the gully over the last one year of the interim government, “rather it turned around”.

Chief Adviser’s special assistant Dr Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, Finance Division secretary Dr M Khairuzzaman Mozumder, revenue board (NBR) chairman M Abdur Rahman Khan, economic relaations division (ERD) secretary M Shahriar Kader Siddiky and Financial Institutions Division secretary Nazma Mobarek were present during the briefing.

The adviser said in broad areas -- the balance of payment, current account and financial account now showed the positive trend although those were negative during the previous regime.

“Now almost everything like foreign currency serve, exchange rate is positive,” he said adding that general point to point inflation rate now came down below 9 percent although it shot up to 14 percent during the Awami League regime.

The adviser, however, said despite the present government’s success in solving many economy related issues, “it is not possible for this interim government to solve everything” since “We don’t have the magic wand”.

Ahmed, who is a former central bank governor, said that no country in the world the volume of looting in the banking sector like what Bangladesh did during the past regime and added the current administration took a series of steps to rebuild the banking sector.

“I can assure that no deposit will be lost in any banks,” he said.

The adviser said revenue generation remained one of the major challenges but the government was trying relentlessly to generate more revenues through gearing up the revenue board staff.

He also pointed out the achievements of his ministry in various economic fronts including the financial sector, banking sector, tax revenue, non-tax revenue, financial institutions, non-bank financial institutions, the capital market and the insurance sectors.

Ahmed said the performances of the external sector including in inward remittance flow and export earnings remained good over the last one year while the government chalked up the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the current fiscal year (FY26) in a reasonable and pragmatic manner.

He, however, said it would not be possible to accomplish everything during this short tenure of the interim government, he said but they would try to ensure that the fruits of development reach to all.

“Our aim is to build a welfare-oriented state,” he said adding that the short-term reforms are likely to be accomplished during this tenure, but the mid-term and the long-term reforms would be left for the successive elected governments.

He added: “I think the successive government won’t discard our good works . . . good works can have some pit falls or weaknesses, but those should not be abandoned.”

Responding to apprehensions by many that the country’s GDP growth would be less, Ahmed said countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka did witness negative growth, but Bangladesh did not experience such negative growth in its lifetime.

He hoped that the country’s GDP growth would cross 5 percent this time.

Ahmed said on the whole, light was there at the end of the tunnel and criticized a group of economists who could not see the ‘ray of light’ in the economy despite such progress.

“The country has begun its journey to the right direction…perhaps it could have been better if we could progress fast…we’ll soon take our country ahead into a level…,” he said.

The adviser expected that by February next year the country would get an economy which would be much better.

Responding to a question on the restructuring of banks, he assured that the depositors of the troubled banks would not lose their money.

Answering to another question on the progress towards retrieving the laundered money from abroad, the adviser said that efforts were on to return back such money through following procedures.

Asked what type of stress the government was now facing, he said that the interim government has already initiated the process for identifying the institutional weaknesses and thus gearing up the manpower behind the institutions to move forward keeping pace.

“We’ve initiated the process, but its continuation is the biggest challenge,” he said.

Replying to a question whether the government would support fully the draft of the Bank Resolution Ordinance, 2025, Ahmed said he was yet to see the draft.

He also urged all to supplement the government’s efforts in prospering further the country as “we all want that the country progress more”.

“Bangladesh has immense potentials with hard working and intelligent people. We just need to ensure that they work with honesty, integrity and sincerity,” Ahmed said.

Anisuzzaman Chowdhury said that the Bangladesh was the only country in the world where inflation had declined while the GDP also did not turn negative at the same time.

Khairuzzaman Mozumder said that the external sector of the country over the last one year was good where the local currency Taka gained strength.

The NBR chairman said that the revenue board did not want to create fear among the taxpayers rather wants to create awareness among the general taxpayers on the dangerous impacts of submitting false information in their returns.