State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY2007-08 and Some Early Signals Regarding FY2008-09 (First Reading)

As Bangladesh entered into the second quarter of FY2008-09, a number of challenges confronted the economy. The confidence generated through the strong resilience, demonstrated by overcoming the formidable difficulties faced in FY2007-08 in terms of consecutive natural disasters and volatile global price situation for a few essentials, had given way to uncertainties originating from global financial crisis and the political transition. In this backdrop, this paper examines the performance of major macroeconomic variables relating to performance of both the financial and the real economy sectors in FY2007-08. The paper also makes an attempt to capture the signals emanated from the first few months of FY2008-09.