Off the wire
• 168 candidates run for Croatian parliament  • U.S. breast cancer guideline recommends later age for screening mammogram  • Austria will meet EU climate targets: environment minister  • 1st LD: U.S., Russia sign memo on safe flight operations over Syria  • Austria establishes places for 1,700 asylum seekers under new law  • Spanish stock market falls 1.05 pct, closes at 10,100 points  • CoE Congress urges cities to take stronger preventative measures against radicalisation  • Tourists assured of more security ahead of Tanzania's polls  • Lithuanian government to free abducted sailors  • Urgent: U.S., Russia sign agreement on safe flight operations over Syria  
You are here: 　 Home

World Bank trims Bangladesh growth forecast for 2015-16 fiscal year

Xinhua, October 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

The World Bank said on Tuesday that it had trimmed Bangladesh's growth forecast for the current fiscal year 2015-16 (July 2015 -June 2016) to 6.5 percent, citing uncertainty both from volatility in the global economy and on the domestic front as the key reasons.

The Washington-based lender said in its Bangladesh Economic Update for October 2015 that Bangladesh's unresolved political uncertainty can hurt growth prospects by hindering confidence rebuilding, leading to a stagnation of private investment.

Prolonged slower growth in advanced and emerging markets may have an adverse impact on garment exports, which make up more than three fourths of the country's annual income, thus widening the trade deficit, it said.

Zahid Hussain, lead economist at the Dhaka office of the World Bank, said Bangladesh's economy is vulnerable on multiple fronts such as China's economic transformation and the elusive increases in U.S. interest rates.

"Increased geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, Ukraine or parts of Africa could take a toll on confidence," he added.

He predicted that a 6.2-percent inflation for the 2015-16 fiscal year would be within reach, given a cautious monetary policy and stable global prices.

Driven by the decrease in food prices, the country's overall consumer inflation decreased to 6.4 percent in the 2014-15 fiscal year from 7.3 percent of the previous fiscal year.

The Bangladeshi government in June this year unveiled a record 3-trillion-taka (about 37.83 billion U.S. dollars) proposed national budget, targeting an economic growth of 7 percent for the current 2015-16 fiscal year.

In his budget speech, Bangladeshi Finance Minister AMA Muhith said, despite favorable macroeconomic situation and enhanced public investment, slow pace of private investment is largely responsible for hindering expected high growth.

About a week after the Bangladeshi government unveiled its national budget, the World Bank said that achieving a 7-percent economic growth target in the 2015-16 fiscal year will be challenging for Bangladesh, but not an impossible task. Endit