State of the Bangladesh Economy and an Analysis of the National Budget for FY2008-09

As is known, the National Budget for the fiscal year 2008-09 (FY2009) and Revised Budget for FY2008 were presented by the Honble Advisor for Finance and Planning on 9 June 2008. In keeping with its tradition, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) presented its budget reaction the following day at a Media Briefing. The present report has been prepared in continuation of yet another of CPDs traditions which aims to analyse major proposals in the budget with a view to assess the implications of the budget proposals for the economy, highlight the challenges of implementation of the proposed measures and identify areas where additional interventions were required. The analyses are based on data and information generated by various ministries, departments and agencies of the government, CPDs own surveys and also other sources. The objective of the present report is to put under scrutiny the Budget FY2009 document at a time when the budget proposals are being discussed by various stakeholders so that policymakers could benefit from reactions of the citizens and take cognisance of their suggestions while finalising the Budget document.