WASHINGTON, Oct 12: Bangladesh Finance Minister AMA Muhith aired on Saturday his optimism about achieving a growth rate of 7.0 per cent for the current fiscal year (FY).
He expressed the optimism despite his dissatisfaction over Bangladesh's prevailing GDP (gross domestic product) growth trend.
"We have been trapped with a 6.0 per cent GDP growth rate over the past few fiscal years. We are not happy with the growth. We could not reach a 7.0 per cent growth target despite taking some initiatives.
He was talking to a group of journalists at the office of Bangladesh's Alternative Executive Director (AED) of the WB, after attending the development committee meeting of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"We are trying hard to achieve a 7.0 per cent GDP growth rate for the current fiscal year. For doing so, we need to increase the country's domestic demand," Mr Muhith said.
"Domestic demand needs to be enhanced through increasing export earnings and inward remittances to achieve the targeted GDP growth," Mr Muhith said.
The finance minister's observation came after the joint statement of the WB and the IMF issued at their annual meeting in Washington D.C on Saturday. The statement said the GDP growth of low income countries would be 6.0 per cent for the fiscal year (FY) 2014-15.
Earlier, the IMF issued a statement on conclusion of an IMF mission's visit to Bangladesh. Led by Rodrigo Cubero, the mission held discussions with different government high-ups and officials. After the visit the mission said Bangladesh's GDP growth would be 6.25 per cent for the FY 2014-15.
The government has targeted 7.3 per cent growth for the current fiscal year. In the last budget, the target was set at 7.2 per cent, which was later revised downward to 6.5 per cent.
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