Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has upgraded the overall country ratings of Bangladesh by one notch up to 5 from 6 after 13 years.
The announcement came at a meeting of Swiss Export Credit Agency (SERV) held in Zurich in the last week. Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman attended the meeting.
The major reason for the promotion from country category 6 to 5 is the resilience of Bangladesh economy accompanied by high and stable growth for well over a decade despite political upheaval and weak external demand.
After upgrading the position, Bangladesh has surpassed its neighboring countries like Pakistan (7/7), Sri Lanka (6/7), Nepal (6/7), Myanmar (6/7) and Mongolia (7/7) in the OECD country classification, and is only behind India (3/7), according to the OECD latest statistics.
With this, Bangladesh has now become a new frontier market, graduating from a highly development aid dependent nation due to long spell of macroeconomic stability.
This will significantly lead to lowering costs for Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and banks in securing guarantees and letter of credit (L/C) confirmations.
“Bangladesh is an untold story,” BB Governor Dr Rahman told to the delegation of SERV at the meeting.
Expressing satisfaction over the enhancement in OECD classification, the central bank chief said it will help lead to significant lowering of costs for Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and banks in securing guarantees and L/C confirmations.
“A large pool of young population offers demographic dividend, which if properly trained, can easily be transformed into skilled labour force, eventually brining in huge foreign reserves for Bangladesh. European countries can take advantage of this up-gradation,” the BB governor explained.
He further expressed hope that the upgraded classification of Bangladesh will attract substantially wider engagement of the advanced economy ECAs in lending to investment projects in Bangladesh including in infrastructure, textiles and apparel, pharmaceuticals and leather sectors.
Governor Dr. Rahman assured that Bangladesh will maintain conducive policy environment towards higher economic growth and macro-financial stability. He welcomed investors to reap the full advantage of all existing and new facilities, bringing about a major new upturn in trade and investment relationships.
The OECD a body comprising 34 countries including USA, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Japan, improved the country risk classification of Bangladesh among recipients of officially supported export credit.
It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.
Bangladesh’s risk classification position was 5 during the April 5-July 4 period of 2002. After the period, the country’s ratings position entered into 6 that continued before the latest review, according to the OECD data.
BBN/ASI/AI