It is also the first for Mahmood Ali as finance minister. In last year’s budget, former finance minister Kamal decided to move ‘Towards a Smart Bangladesh'. Despite this, former finance minister Kamal kept to the traditional style of planning by increasing the size of the budget every year. The finance minister hopes to meet the deficit by borrowing Tk 1.27 trillion from abroad and nearly Tk 1.61 trillion from domestic sources. It is Ali's hope that with the implementation of the new budget, Bangladesh can achieve 6.75 percent GDP growth while keeping inflation tamped down to 6.5 percent.
