The World Bank says Bangladesh’s GDP growth will be 6.5 percent in the current fiscal. The government has said it is expecting a 7 percent GDP growth this fiscal. The World Bank’s Dhaka office released its report ‘Bangladesh Development Update’ on Tuesday, suggesting that the government should boost private sector investments. In its ‘Global Economic Prospects’ report, released in June this year, the WB said that growth of Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) in FY 2015-16 would not exceed 6.3 percent. It had also said then that political instability would have adverse impact on the economy. But recently, World Bank’s Chief Economist Kaushik Basu had told bdnews24.com that Bangladesh economic growth was ‘astonishing’, especially when the global economy was facing a downturn. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), however, had said that a 6.7 percent growth was achievable for Bangladesh in this fiscal. In its ‘Asian Development Outlook 2015’, released last month, it said political stability, increased spending on public and private sectors and rising export incomes as well as remittances will help Bangladesh attain a 6.7 percent GDP growth. Bangladesh has set a 7 percent GDP growth target in the 2015-16 FY budget and Finance Minister AMA Muhith insists it’s possible to achieve.
