Achieving 7 percent GDP growth not impossible, but challenging: World Bank

The target of seven percent GDP growth in the budget proposals might not be ‘impossible’ to achieve but will be ‘challenging’, says the World Bank.

“If the investment rate of 26 percent of the GDP can be raised by a further 2 to 2.5 percent and if political stability is sustained, then it’s not impossible to achieve that target,” World Bank Dhaka office’s Lead Economist Zahid Hussain told a media briefing on Monday.
 
According to the latest government figures, Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) stands at Tk 15.13 trillion in July to March period of the ongoing fiscal. The country’s GDP was at Tk 13.43 trillion the last fiscal.
 
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics predicts that GDP growth by the end of the ongoing 2014-15 fiscal would be around 6.51 percent against the previous budget’s projected 7.3 percent.
 
The Tk 3 trillion budget, proposed for the coming FY 2015-16, sets a target of 7 percent GDP growth.
 
The World Bank’s ‘Global Economic Prospects’ published on Friday, however, says that Bangladesh’s GDP growth would not be more than 6.3 percent.
 
“Not even 20 countries in the world have been witnessing more than six percent growth over the last few years, which Bangladesh has been achieving,” Hussain said during Monday’s media call.
 
He said that the proposed budget stipulates measures to prop up investment as well to steps to meet the power demand and setting up economic zones. “That’s why I think achieving 7 percent growth will be a challenge but not an impossible one.”