Bangladesh economy slows, GDP growth forecast down

An economic slowdown now compared to previous months has prompted the IMF to revise down its growth forecast for Bangladesh in the current fiscal year.

"The reason for revising down our growth forecast is response to what we saw in the recent past," said Krishna Srinivasan, IMF Director for Asia-Pacific Department.

Replying to a query from the FE, he said: "…things have slowed down compared to what we saw in the April forecast. So those developments give us a pause in terms of what happens to growth."

Mr Srinivasan was briefing newsmen Thursday at a press conference on Economic Outlook for the Asia-Pacific Region in Washington, DC, as part of the ongoing World Bank-IMF annual meetings.

He mentions there was a mission led by mission chief for Bangladesh Chris Papageorgiou which looked at all aspects, what happening to the economy. "Based on that we (have) revised down the growth forecast."

Mr Srinivasan points out that in the case of Bangladesh, the growth has slowed and inflation remains high.

He, however, says Bangladesh has been making good progress under the $4.7-billion IMF credit programme.

He said discussions were going on regarding next review of the loan programme.

"We had discussions in Dhaka and discussions are continuing in Washington on how to move forward," he notes.

Regarding new financing plan, he said financing and all those would be part of the discussions which will take place this week and next.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday last in its World Economic Outlook forecast that Bangladesh's GDP growth will go down to 4.5 per cent in FY'25 from its April projection of 6.6 per cent. If this happens, it will be the lowest-ever growth in last 20 years excepting the Covid pandemic years.

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