Dhaka Bureau: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has further reduced the growth forecast of Bangladesh’s gross domestic product, or GDP, in the current fiscal year. The organization’s forecast says that Bangladesh’s growth will be 6 percent in 2024, but the growth rate will increase to 7 percent in 2028.
The agency had earlier revised down its April forecast of 6.5 percent growth in 2023–24 to 6 percent.
This information is known from the World Economic Outlook report of the organization published on Tuesday, October 10.
In addition to forecasting growth, the IMF said that the inflation rate in Bangladesh was 9 percent in the last financial year, but it may drop to 7.9 percent in the current fiscal year and 5.5 percent in 2028.
In addition, the IMF has predicted that the current account deficit will continue. They say that the current account deficit in the fiscal year 2022–23 may be 0.7 percent of GDP and 0.8 percent in the fiscal year 2023–24.
According to the organization’s report on the world economy, the global growth rate in 2022 was 3.5 percent. It will come down to 3 percent this year and further decrease to 2.5 percent in 2024.
However, the IMF has predicted that the overall inflation rate will also decrease this year.
Earlier, the World Bank estimated 6.2 percent GDP growth for the current financial year in the forecast given in April this year.
In a report titled ‘Bangladesh Development Update: New Frontiers in Poverty Reduction’, the World Bank identifies central uncertainty in the upcoming national elections as one of the main risks. At the same time, to restore the stability of the external sector, it said that it depends on correcting the deviation of the foreign exchange rate and withdrawing the cap on the exchange rate.
