GDP target in next fiscal to be 7.3pc: Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said that 7.3 per cent GDP growth has been targeted in the coming national budget for the next fiscal (2014-15). “The budget will be around Tk 2.5 trilllion and the size of the annual development programme (ADP) will be about Tk 800 billion. I will finalise this through discussion with the Prime Minister, he told reporters after a meeting with a delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at his office. In the current fiscal (2013-14), the national budget outlay was about Tk 2.23 trillion and the ADP was about Tk 680 billion. But now it is being mulled to revise the ADP to Tk 550 billion. The current GDP target was 7.2 per cent, but the Finance Minister during a half yearly statement on the economy revised the target saying that it might be 6.5 per cent. About his meeting with the delegation, he said the IMF has raised concern about two aspects of the budget which are stimulation for readymade garments (RMG) and the budget process, according to a news agency.