{"id":367402,"date":"2025-12-25T05:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T05:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/367402\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T05:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T05:08:12","slug":"bangladesh-experiencing-moderate-stagflation-zahid-hussain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/367402\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh experiencing moderate stagflation: Zahid Hussain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without deep structural reforms, growth is likely to remain around 4%\u20135%, putting the country\u2019s trillion-dollar economy target at risk, he says <\/p>\n

\n TBS Report\n <\/p>\n

\n 24 December, 2025, 08:25 pm <\/p>\n

\n Last modified: 24 December, 2025, 08:30 pm <\/p>\n

\n World Bank lead economist Dr Zahid Hussain. Photo: TBS<\/p>\n

“> <\/p>\n

\"World<\/p>\n

\n World Bank lead economist Dr Zahid Hussain. Photo: TBS <\/p>\n

Bangladesh is currently in a moderate stagflationary phase, marked by persistently high inflation alongside a gradual slowdown in economic growth, said Dr Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office.<\/p>\n

“It becomes evident when growth falls below trend levels while inflation remains elevated. By that definition, Bangladesh has shown stagflationary tendencies over the past three to four years,” he said at a roundtable titled ‘Is the economy trapped in a vicious cycle?’ held at BDBL Bhaban in Dhaka today (24 December).<\/p>\n

He noted that while textbook stagflation typically involves negative growth with high inflation, developing economies like Bangladesh rarely experience outright negative growth.<\/p>\n


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“Although GDP growth remains positive at around 3.5%\u20134%, inflation continues in the high single digits, driven mainly by exchange rate depreciation and persistent food price increases,” he said.<\/p>\n

The economist emphasised that political stability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for macroeconomic stability. Under current institutional and investment conditions, Bangladesh’s potential growth is estimated at 6%\u20136.5%, making sustained 8% growth a highly ambitious target.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that without deep structural reforms, growth is likely to remain around 4%\u20135%, putting the country’s trillion-dollar economy target at risk.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the event, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Fahmida Khatun warned that Bangladesh risks being trapped in a “low-level economic equilibrium” unless persistent inflation, weak private investment, and widening inequality are addressed.<\/p>\n

“While inflation has eased from double digits to 8.29%, wage growth has largely stagnated, meaning real incomes have declined and people’s purchasing power has eroded,” she said.<\/p>\n

Highlighting findings from the Labour Force Survey 2024, Khatun pointed to a contraction in employment: total employment declined by 1.74 million, of which 1.64 million \u2013 nearly 94% \u2013were women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This clearly undermines the idea of inclusive development. Decent and productive employment is essential for reducing inequality,” she stressed.<\/p>\n

Economist Jyoti Rahman, presenting the keynote paper, said Bangladesh is at a critical economic crossroads as it aims to become a trillion-dollar economy by 2035a goal that would require sustaining roughly 8% real GDP growth for at least a decade.<\/p>\n

Planning Commission member Dr Monzur Hossain said that achieving 8% growth until 2035 is extremely ambitious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Rather than chasing a number, the focus should be on rebuilding the economic foundation by restoring macroeconomic stability and ensuring quality investment, employment, and productivity,” he added.<\/p>\n

The event, jointly organised by Voice for Reform and BRAIN, was also attended by Dhaka University professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Without deep structural reforms, growth is likely to remain around 4%\u20135%, putting the country\u2019s trillion-dollar economy target at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-367402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}