Politics dampens growth prospects

The axe fell heavily on the growth projections for the next five years under the government's perspective plan as politics played the spoiler.
The General Economics Division (GED) cut the country's economic growth projections under the Perspective Plan 2010-2020, government officials said Thursday.
Officials said the gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection in the next financial year (FY) 2015-16 was trimmed down to 6.6 per cent under its perspective plan, down by 1.7 percentage points from the previous target of 8.3 per cent.
Besides, the GDP growth projection has been revised downward to 6.8 per cent, 7.2 per cent, 7.6 per cent and 8.0 per cent from 8.7 per cent, 9.1 per cent, 9.4 per cent and 9.7 per cent in the subsequent FY2017, FY2018, FY2019 and FY2020 respectively.
The GED disclosed the revised medium-term macro-economic framework (MTMF) Thursday at the meeting of the "National steering committee on preparing the seventh five-year plan (FYP)" at the NEC conference room in the city with Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.
GED officials said the achievement of slower growth in the last couple of years, largely under the impact of a restive political situation, prompted the authorities to go for the downward revisions.        
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in its preliminary macroeconomic-projection has set a target of 7.4 per cent economic growth for the next fiscal.
Besides, it has proposed 7.5 and 7.7 per cent GDP growth targets in the subsequent FY2017 and FY2018 respectively under the trimmed MTMF.
A GED official said: "When we will get the final decision from the national steering committee and from the panel of experts on preparation of the 7th FYP, we will include it at the upcoming 7th FYP."
He said the growth projections will be finalised after consultation with the MoF.
The GED is working on formulating the 7th FYP to be implemented between FY2016 and FY2020.
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