The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease itself. In the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment, it has forced governments worldwide to implement large-scale containment measures, such as limiting economic activities to the essential. This has resulted in a global economic contraction. Utilising the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model, a multi-region/multi-country computable general equilibrium framework, BIGD has conducted a study to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on the GDP of 2020 in Bangladesh as well as on important economic sectors.
The findings from our study were presented at a webinar titled “Macroeconomic Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic” on Sunday, 6 September 2020 at 11:00 am, in which Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Professorial Fellow, BIGD and Dr M A Razzaque, Research Director, Policy Research Institute (PRI) presented the findings from the study.
Dr Shamsul Alam, Member, General Economics Division (GED), Planning Commission, Government of Bangladesh; Dr Selim Raihan, Executive Director, South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM); Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker, Chairman, SANEM; Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD); Dr Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan, Senior Economist, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Washington Seattle; Dr M. Abu Eusuf, Professor & Chairman, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka; and Aminul Arifeen, Project Manager, Social Protection at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) attended the webinar as panellists. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion and a Q&A session open to all participants.
