by Naim-Ul-Karim

DHAKA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi government has unveiled a record 4.65 trillion-taka (about 55.31 billion U.S. dollars) national budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year starting in July.

The government announced massive spending for rural areas and projected economic growth of 7.8 percent in the annual budget.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Thursday placed before the parliament the 10th annual budget of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government since 2009.

In his budget speech, Muhith said, "The UN Committee for Development Policy confirmed our LDC (the Least Developed Country) graduation in March 2018. We hope our status will be elevated to upper middle income country in the near future."

Bangladesh is now the 43rd largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP while its position is 32nd in terms of purchasing power parity, Muhith said further, quoting the data from the International Monetary Fund.

Gross domestic product or GDP growth rate will be 7.8 percent in 2018-19 fiscal year and inflation will come down to 5.6 percent by the end of the fiscal year, the finance minister said.

Muhith said the total outlay of the proposed budget for the next fiscal year 2018-19 (July 2018-June 2019) is 4,645.73 billion taka, up by about 17 percent over that of the original budget of the outgoing fiscal year 2017-18.

According to the proposal, the overall budget deficit will be 1,252.29 billion taka, which is 4.9 percent of GDP.

Of this amount, 540.67 billion taka (2.1 percent of GDP) will be financed from external sources and 712.26 billion taka (2.28 percent of GDP) from domestic sources.

Muhith said the total estimated revenue will be 3.39 trillion taka.

On the expenditure side, he said, the size of Annual Development Program (ADP) for the next fiscal year will be 1.79 trillion taka with transport, power, infrastructure, rural development and education sectors getting the biggest chunk of money.

Analysts say the government's "election-time budget" aims to reduce unhappiness over rising costs of living ahead of the next parliamentary polls slated for December this year.

Speaking at a program on Monday, Muhith brushed aside the allegation of formulating election-focused budget by saying that every budget is placed keeping in mind the satisfaction of all people.