Helping Bangladesh Recover from COVID-19

A municipal truck sanitizes the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh in order to prevent COVID-19.By External SourceDHAKA, Bangladesh, Jun 22 2020 (IPS) One of the most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh exemplifies the triple blow that many emerging market countries have suffered from COVID-19: domestic slowdown caused by the disease and the efforts to contain its spread; a sharp decline in exports, particularly in the ready-made garment sector, and a drop in remittances. Its once robust economy has dramatically slowed in recent months. To help Bangladesh during this crisis, the IMF has approved emergency loans totaling around $732 million. IMF Country Focus spoke with the IMF’s resident representative for Bangladesh Ragnar Gudmundsson about some of the specific challenges facing the country. How has Bangladesh been affected by COVID-19? Bangladesh has been severely impacted. Up until the crisis, the economy had been growing close to 7 percent a year on average over the past decade. We now project 2 percent for 2020—a drop of 6 percentage points from 2019. The economic impact has been felt in three main avenues: first, a drop in domestic economic activity, after the shutdown announced on March 26 (now gradually being lifted); the second is a decline in exports of ready-made garments, which represent more than 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports and have been strongly impacted (overall exports fell by 83 percent year-on-year in April). Finally, there has been...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Aid Asia-Pacific Development & Aid Featured Global Global Governance Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Population Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news