DHAKA: Bangladesh’s growth is going to be the third highest in the world in 2016, exceeding China’s. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is set to record 6.8 per cent in the year.
Only Iraq and India are projected to attain a higher growth. Iraq’s growth is likely to be 7.6 per cent and India’s 7.5 per cent.
Bangladesh’s growth scenario has been reflected in a CNN Money report prepared on the basis of data compiled by International Monetary Fund.
The multilateral agency forecast 3.6 per cent global economic growth for 2016. The United Nations foresees even a lower global growth – at 2.9 per cent for the year.
Despite economic slowdown worldwide, the Bangladesh economy is likely to grow at a rate of more than 6 per cent in 2016. The World Bank’s chief economist Kaushik Basu lauded the country’s growth, saying that the Bangladeshis should be proud of this achievement.
In the CNN’s report, Bangladesh was in the 5th position in 2015 in terms of attaining higher economic growth.
Other countries which are in the list of estimated higher growth in 2016 include Qatar (6.5 per cent), China (6.3 per cent), Vietnam (5.8 per cent), Indonesia (5.5 per cent, Mexico (5.5 per cent) and Nigeria (5 per cent).
Member of general economics division of the Planning Commission Shamsul Alam said the estimates of growth at 6 per cent by the World Bank and 6.8 per cent by the IMF are conservative ones.
“We always exceeded their estimates and in fact we can’t find any year when we achieved less than their estimated growth,” he pointed out.
He added that the country is going to achieve more than 7 per cent growth for the first time in 2016 unless there is natural calamity or political unrest. “That is a good news for us in the year.”
Shamsul Alam acknowledged the challenge – investment. “Apart from land scarcity and higher interest rate, the security of capital of the individuals should be seriously taken into consideration,” he said and wondered why money is siphoned off to countries where interest rate is close to zero from a county of 10 percent interest rate.
Mirza Azizul Islam, former caretaker government adviser, is not so optimistic, however. He said investment is the main driving force for growth “but private investment is not getting vibrant now”.
He also mentioned that a number of economic indicators such as export growth and remittances inflow are not very strong.
