Staff Reporter :The World Bank (WB) has projected a 6.2 per cent GDP growth for Bangladesh in the current fiscal (2014-15), up from 6.1 per cent in the previous fiscal. The global lending agency has observed that the country’s economy is going well, supported by macro-economic stability, rebound in exports, strong domestic demand and rising public investment. The observation of WB came from its latest report ‘South Asia Economic Focus’ released on Monday. “Regaining political stability and with a renewed focus on growth, Bangladesh is forecast to grow by 6.2 per cent in FY2014/15 from 6.1 per cent in the previous fiscal year,” said the report. The WB is also highly optimistic about the inflow of remittance from abroad, the life-blood of the country’s balance of payment. Regarding domestic demand, the driving force of the economic growth, the WB said infrastructure investment would “support aggregate demand”.The WB saw that the inflation in Bangladesh actually declined as a result of better supply conditions and slower aggregate demand when the headline inflation remained stable. The report said that the exports continued to grow at two-digit rates, and as a result the country could witness a financial account surplus in FY15, in spite of a decline in inflow of the foreign direct investment (FDI). “There was a solid performance of Bangladesh’s industry, notwithstanding a slowdown from 9.6 per cent in FY2013 to 8.4 per cent in FY2014,” the report said.The WB in the report, however, brought attention to some important areas including fiscal policy, revenue shortfall and political stability. “In Bangladesh, fiscal policy remains plagued by implementation weaknesses. There was a revenue shortfall for the second year in a row, forcing a revision of targets. The shortfall was compensated by sluggish expenditure growth, although this was mainly due to poor implementation of the public investment programme”, the report said.The report advised that government should prioritize the most transformative projects for completion within specified timelines. The projects include the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways, double-tracking of the Dhaka-Chittagong railway line, Padma Bridge, Dhaka metro rail project and two Bibiyani gas field-based power plants.The other major recommendations that the WB put forwarded in the report to accelerate economic growth include enacting the Public Private Partnership (PPP) law, awarding contracts to develop Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and completion of transformation of the garment industry. The report said that increased economic activities in India would lead the higher growth in the South Asia region, which also comprises Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.Earlier, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has forecast a 6.4 per cent GDP growth and International Monetary Fund (IMF) 6.25 per cent growth for Bangladesh in the current fiscal (2014-15) against 6.1per cent in the previous fiscal.
