IMF lowers GDP growth projection to 6.7% for FY23
A week ago, the World Bank kept its growth projection unchanged at 6.4% for FY22
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted 6.7% GDP growth for Bangladesh for the next fiscal year (FY2023), down from its previous forecast of 7.1%.
Growth is expected to be 6.4% in this current fiscal year (FY2022), according to the IMF.
Earlier in December, the Washington-based lender in its Article IV mission had predicted 6.6% growth for Bangladesh for FY22.
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In the latest version of its World Economic Outlook focused "War Sets Back the Global Recovery" released on Tuesday, the global lender made downward revisions of its projections for both the current and next fiscal years for Bangladesh.
A week ago, the World Bank kept its growth projection unchanged at 6.4% for FY22.
The forecast followed the Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s projection of a 6.9% growth for the current fiscal year, higher than that of two other lenders.
However, all these forecasts remained below the government's target of 7.2% for the current fiscal year.
In its latest projections, the IMF forecasted a 6% rise in consumer prices for FY22, up from 5.7% in earlier issues.
For FY23, IMF sees 6.2% inflation for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday published inflation data for March, showing a spike of 6.22% year on year, which was 6.17% in February.
War slows recovery
The war in Ukraine has triggered a costly humanitarian crisis at the same time, economic damage from the conflict will contribute to a significant slowdown in global growth in 2022 and add to inflation.
Global growth is projected to slow from an estimated 6.1% in 2021 to 3.6% in 2022 and 2023. This is 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points lower for 2022 and 2023 than projected in January.
Beyond 2023, global growth is forecast to decline to about 3.3% over the medium term.
War-induced commodity price increases and broadening price pressures have led to 2022 inflation projections of 5.7% in advanced economies and 8.7% in emerging market and developing economies—1.8 and 2.8 percentage points higher than projected last January.
