The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised down its growth projection for Bangladesh in the current fiscal year 2024-25, reducing the forecast from the previous 6.6% made in April this year.
In its July update of the “Asian Development Outlook,” the ADB also projected a higher annual inflation rate for the current fiscal year, now set at 7%, up from the earlier projection.
The revised projections come as the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) provisionally estimated economic growth at 5.8% for the last fiscal year, compared to the ADB's April projection of 6.1%.
The BBS reported an annual average inflation rate of 9.72% for the last fiscal year, significantly higher than the ADB's previous forecast of 8.4%.
"In Bangladesh, the lower growth forecasts for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 are mainly due to downward revisions in the growth of the industrial sector," the ADB report stated.
The report also cited higher food prices as a major factor behind the persistent high inflation in Bangladesh.
"Despite several measures to curb inflation, monthly inflation rates in Bangladesh continued to be near double digits in the first 11 months of FY2024," the report noted, adding that high inflation may persist due to elevated domestic food prices.
Meanwhile, the government set targets to increase economic growth in the current fiscal year to 6.75% and reduce the annual average inflation rate to 6.5%.
