The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised down Bangladesh's economic growth forecast for the outgoing and current fiscal years from its earlier projection made in April last, as the country's industrial output is likely to decline during the period.
It also left an unpleasant message for the consumers as the country's inflation rate may hit double-digit in the coming months.
"In Bangladesh, the lower growth forecasts for FY 2023-24, ended on June 30, and for the FY2025 come mainly from downward revisions to growth in industry," said the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) of the ADB published on Wednesday.
However, the Manila-based lender has not disclosed any specific data on the GDP growth rate for the coming FYs.
In April last, the ADB in its ADO forecasted that Bangladesh's GDP growth is expected to grow at 6.1 per cent in FY2024 and 6.6 per cent in FY2025.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has estimated the country's GDP growth for the last FY2024 at 5.82 per cent, 0.28 percentage points lower than the ADB's April forecast.
The ADB has also forecasted the inflation rates at 8.4 per cent in FY2024 and a softer rate of 7.0 per cent in FY2025.
"The inflation projections for Bangladesh and Maldives are now expected to be higher. Despite several measures to curb inflation, monthly inflation rates in Bangladesh continued to be near double digits in the first 11 months of FY2024 and may persist due to high domestic food prices," the ADB said.
According to the BBS, the country's point-to-point inflation in last FY2024 was recorded at 9.73 per cent.
About the South Asian outlook, the ADB in its report said the downward revisions for GDP growth in Bangladesh and Maldives over the forecast period are offset in FY2024 by upward revisions for Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan, leaving the region's 2024 growth forecast unchanged at 6.3 per cent.
The growth forecast for the South Asia in FY2025 is revised down marginally to 6.5 per cent.
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