ADB maintains 6.9 percent economic growth outlook for FY18

The Asian Development Bank or ADB has maintained its forecast that Bangladesh’s economy will grow by 6.9 percent in the current fiscal year.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 26 Sept 2017, 01:14 PM
Updated : 26 Sept 2017, 02:14 PM

The economy grew by 7.2 percent in the last fiscal year that ended on June 30, the ADB said crediting it to rising income, which lifted private consumption and a hike in public investment.

In its update on the Asian Development Outlook 2017, the lending agency said Bangladesh's growth in FY2017 was 'higher than expected'. Its projection was 6.9 percent.

"A decline in remittances notwithstanding, higher farm and wage income lifted private consumption and growth, as did an uptick in public investment. Despite improved power supply, which is vital for investment, private investment slowed,” the ADB said in the report launched on Tuesday.

It said inflation was lower than projected.

Citing 'preliminary official estimates', the ADB said average inflation softened further to 5.4 percent in FY2017, from 5.9 percent in the previous year.

"Food inflation accelerated over most of FY2017, broadly in line with developments in global food prices, and spiked to 7.5 percent in June as floods and landslides in parts of the country caused crop losses, marketing problems, and consequent rice shortages."

Bangladesh's exports tumbled in the last fiscal year, as it grew by only 1.7 percent to $34 billion, compared to 8.9 percent a year earlier.

Garment exports, accounting for 80 percent of the total exports, suffered a major hit as demand fell in all major markets: Europe, the UK and US.

Infrastructure bottlenecks exacerbated lower export growth, it said adding other exports saw a robust growth of 8.5 percent against 7.8 in the previous year.

Noting the 14.5 percent decline in remittance, the lending agency reported that numbers of jobs held by Bangladeshi workers abroad rose by 32.2 percent in FY2017.

Weak oil prices depressed wages in the Middle East as well rising cost of living left worker with less to remit, it said.

"Finally, workers found it costlier to send money home because of higher bank fees and requirements introduced to counter money laundering and terror financing," the ADB said.

It said that inflows from Saudi Arabia fell by 23.5 percent and 23 percent from the UAE -- the two largest sources.

The steepest decline, at 30 percent, was from the third-largest source -- the US, 'possibly reflecting policy uncertainty', according to the ADB