Finance Minister AMA Muhith does not agree with the World Bank’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth forecast for Bangladesh for the current fiscal year as he says their projection is made every year based on the data the lending agency collects from their own sources.
“They don’t take into account what happens in the country in reality and that’s why the lower projection,” he told reporters on Wednesday at the Secretariat.
The World Bank projected a 6.4% GDP growth for Bangladesh in FY 2017-18 in its latest report ‘The Bangladesh Development Update September 2017’ unveiled at a briefing in its Dhaka office earlier in the day.
This fiscal year, the government has set a growth target of 7.4%.
Also Read- World Bank forecasts 6.4% GDP growth for Bangladesh in 2018
Muith said: “Although the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund had forecasted a lower GDP growth rate for FY2016-17, they accepted the 7.24% rate we achieved at the end of the year.”
He, however, added that floods and natural disasters would have some adverse impact on the country's economic growth.
Responding to another query from the journalists on the 2016 Bangladesh Bank cyber heist, the finance minister said: “We will very soon receive $40 million from the Philippines government. A Bangladesh Bank team will also go to Manila in this regard.”
“We have recovered $34.63 million so far. Hopefully, with help from the Philippines president, we’ll recover of rest, $66.37 million soon.”
Some yet-to-be-identified hackers had tried to steal nearly $1 billion from the central bank’s account with the New York Federal Reserve in February last year and succeeded in transferring $81 million to four accounts at a bank in Manila.
From there, most of the funds then disappeared into Manila’s loosely regulated casino industry.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
