Bangladesh’s economy is expected to grow by 6.8 percent in 2016, supported by eased political tension and rebounded export earnings, according the latest report of the World Bank.
The report Global Economic Prospects, released in Washington yesterday, gave a picture of the prospects and challenges of the global economy in 2016.
It said the weak growth among major emerging markets would weigh on global growth this year, but the growth in South Asia region would accelerate to 7.3 percent this year from 7 percent in 2015.
For Bangladesh, the outlook was stable as the report predicted constant 6.8 percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth for the next three years to 2018.
With this latest forecast, the multi-donor agency raised its economic outlook for Bangladesh again as it earlier said the GDP would grow by 6.5 percent at the end of the current 2015-16 financial year.
According to the report, the Indian economy would grow by 7.7 percent this year while GDP growth in Afghanistan would be 3.1 percent, Bhutan 7.2 percent, the Maldives 3.1 percent, Nepal 3.7 percent, Pakistan 5.5 percent and Sri Lanka 5.6 percent.
Bangladesh’s growth forecast is the third highest among Saarc countries, where the highest prediction was for India and the lowest was for the Maldives and Afghanistan.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) already lifted the economic outlook for Bangladesh to 6.8 percent, close to the fiscal target of 7 percent. The ADB also raised the GDP to growth prediction to 6.7 percent.
The WB report, however, cautioned that ‘a resumption of political tensions’ would hinder the steady economy growth.
Source: Ittefaq