WB predicts 6.8% economic growth for Bangladesh

Desk Report: The World Bank (WB) has predicted 6.8 percent GDP growth for Bangladesh.

The global lender posted the growth projections for the current financial year in its half-yearly report, Global Economic Prospects, on Wednesday.    

After being restricted to 6 percent growth for about a decade, Bangladesh’s economy posted a 7.11 percent GDP growth in the 2015-16 fiscal.

The government set a 7.2 percent growth target for 2016-17 fiscal.

Earlier, the Global Economic Prospects from June said Bangladesh would not achieve 6.3 percent growth in 2016-17.

The forecast in January was 5 percentage points higher.

The World Bank in the report said private expenditure and investment were both suffering due to sluggish foreign currency flow.

It warned that weakening remittance and exports may lower economic growth to 6.5 percent in the 2017-18 fiscal.

Growth may suffer further if stabilising measures are not taken for revenue, financial and corporate sectors, it said.

risingbd/Dhaka/Jan 11, 2017/A K Azad