Economy has regressed by 10.08 percent in 2020: Opposition Leader

By Puran Gurung/ Thimphu

In light of various economic growth rate figures reflected by the government and other relevant agencies, the opposition party claim that the economy of the country has regressed by 10.08 percent in 2020.

The Opposition Leader, Dorji Wangdi points that the economic growth figure of 2021 is not ready. Talking about economic growth of 2020, the opposition leader said: “It is confirmed that the economy regressed by 10.08 percent, economy has gone down by 15.84 percent because in 2019, the economic growth rate was 5.76 percent and it went down to 10.08 percent in 2020.”

Opposition Leader also highlighted about the economic growth rate figure reflected by the World Bank, on it, he said that he would not disagree with the World Bank’s figure but the trend shows that our actual economic growth is not what the World Bank projected in 2020.

The World Bank figure points that Bhutan’s Gross Domestic Product for 2020 is -10.1 percent.

He also highlighted that the optimistic projections made by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank in the past did not happen in reality in the country. This is in reference to World Bank’s projection that the economy will rebound in 2021. “It is good to be realistic, and it is good to hear what they project,” he added.

According to the press release of the opposition party, it says: “Our economy is in a bad state. Economic growth rate has fallen by 15.84 percent in the last one year (from 5.76 percent in 2019 to -10.08 percent in 2020), Gross Domestic Product has fallen by around Nu 7 billion (from Nu 178 billion in 2019 to Nu 171 billion in 2020), per capita income has fallen below 2017 level (from US$ 3332.56 in 2017 to US$ 3129.86 in 2020).”

The release further adds, “This means we are poorer now than in 2017 and more people have fallen below poverty line. Overall debt has reached 129.06 percent of GDP, while non-hydro debt has increased by 80.46 percent in the last two years alone US$ 42,136.39 in 2018-2019 to US$ 76.039.86 in 2020-2021 fiscal years.”

Opposition Party also suggests the government to get the country’s economy vision clear. The political parties, especially the ruling, must translate the Royal Economic Vision into action as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader points the economy path of the country is ‘visionless and directionless’.