Q: Do you expect the national economy to pick up this year?
A: We expect the economic recovery to gain ground with growth picking up to 4.5 percent on a very favourable base effect as GDP contracted by 3.6 percent last year.

Most of the base effect will be in the second quarter (GDP fell around 17 percent in the corresponding period of 2020) so numerically, the first half of the year will be very strong. However, economic activity in the second half should exceed the first. Other than tourism, we have seen a recovery in most other sectors.

Growth recovery in the US and EU is likely to improve sharply. This is also evident in our March exports numbers, which crossed US$ 1 billion. We’re now confident in increasing our export forecast to 12.5 billion dollars.

With the surge in oil prices, Middle Eastern economies will bounce back to normalcy, which will enable our worker remittances to exceed the US$ 8 billion target. However, higher oil prices will add pressure to our import bill.

We also believe that the country is ready to attract over 700 million dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) this year for which the Port City bill and investment framework will be key.

With vaccine supply being an issue and periods of COVID-19 outbreaks likely, these pose considerable risks to the economy. Due to the third wave, the recovery process will not be linear but zigzag. However, the pent-up demand could make up for what is lost during the pandemic period.

Furthermore, it will be a challenge to achieve the initial forecast of tourism receipts of US$ 1.4 billion in 2021, distressing various hospitality related sectors. Therefore, vaccination will be key to our success although supply shortages remain a global challenge. 

Q: How is the bank planning for financial year 2021/22 given the ‘new normal’?
A: Our clients expect us to be dynamic, responsive and focussed on them constantly, which requires being agile and decisive to meet the challenges of a vastly changed world.

Given this context, Standard Chartered will be embracing ‘new Ways of Working’ (nWOW) to improve our processes from end-to-end by creating more effective forums, tools and techniques. This will also make the bank faster, more seamless and safer to facilitate a world-class experience for clients.

This approach will combine the best external knowledge with our own learnings from the past. Some of our global businesses are already implementing these practices with convincing results with an end goal to ensure that we are ‘Closer to Client – Closer to Home.’