Bangladesh’s economy is showing strong signs of recovery with impressive growth in digital payments, rising exports, and improved financial balances according to a new government report. The General Economics Division has released encouraging data showing the country’s economic health is getting better across many important areas. Mobile financial services have grown tremendously over the past year, with people using digital payments much more than before. The biggest growth happened during festival season when transaction volumes reached between 1.53 trillion and 1.78 trillion taka in March. This shows that more people are comfortable using mobile money for their daily needs and special occasions. Online shopping has also taken off in a big way, with e-commerce transactions jumping by nearly 64 percent compared to last year. From July to May, monthly online expenditures increased from 14.48 billion taka to 23.65 billion taka, showing that shoppers are accepting digital shopping sites. Farmers got more support too, with agricultural loans reaching a record high of 3,654 crore taka in May. Factory production had some ups and downs but still managed to grow by over 11 percent in October after a temporary slowdown earlier in the year. The biggest success story came from international trade, where Bangladesh achieved something it had not done in five years. The country earned more money from abroad than it spent, creating a surplus of 1 billion dollars. Export earnings shot up impressively, with July shipments worth 4.77 billion dollars, which is 25 percent higher than the same time last year. Money sent home by workers living overseas also increased significantly, bringing in 2.47 billion dollars in July alone. This represents a 29.5 percent increase from the previous year and helps support many families across the country. However, rising rice prices remain a concern for ordinary people. Rice price increases are pushing up food costs, with rice contributing over half of all food inflation by July. The government is working to bring in more rice from other countries and increase local purchases to help control prices, but it may take several months for these efforts to show results in the markets. Despite rice price challenges, overall inflation is getting better and is expected to drop to around 8.5 percent by the end of the fiscal year.
