Staff Correspondent:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has retained Bangladesh’s economic growth forecast at 3.8% for the current fiscal year 2024-2025 (FY25), unchanged from its December projection.

However, the global lender sees a brighter outlook ahead, projecting 6.5% growth in FY26.

In its latest edition of the World Economic Outlook released on Tuesday (April 22 ), the multilateral agency also projected Bangladesh’s inflation to remain elevated, reaching 10% in FY25, before cooling down to 5.2% in the next fiscal year.

However, the inflation projection for FY25 is lower than the December forecast of 11%.

The IMF’s projection comes after the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in its latest Asian Development Outlook (ADO), expected Bangladesh’s economy to grow by just 3.9% in the current fiscal year, before increasing to 5.1% in FY26. The ADB also warned that the 12-month average inflation in Bangladesh is expected to rise further to 10.2% in FY25, before easing to 8% in the next fiscal.

The Manila-based lender also stated that the enduring inflation remains a significant hurdle due to market inefficiency brought on by regulatory shortcomings, restrained competition in wholesale markets, insufficient market information, supply chain constraints, and depreciation of the taka.

Meanwhile, in December last year, the government revised its GDP growth projection for FY25 downward to 5.25%, from the initial estimate of 6.75%, due to the ongoing financial crisis, business slowdown, and political volatility following the recent change in government.