UN: Bangladesh economy to expand by 6% in 2022

The United Nations has projected that Bangladesh economy is expected to expand by 6 per cent in 2022.

In its latest “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2022” report released on Thursday, the UN said, “Amid sound macroeconomic policies, Bangladesh has navigated the Covid-19 pandemic relatively well. GDP (gross domestic product) is projected to expand by 6 per cent in 2022.

“Economic activity rides on export growth and the rising demand for apparel, robust remittance inflows, and accommodative fiscal and monetary policies,” it added.

According to the report, Bangladesh’s rate of growth of real GDP was predicted at 5.8 per cent in 2022 and 6.4 per cent in 2023. The fresh growth report comes just two days after the World Bank reiterated its projection for Bangladesh in its “Global Economic Prospects” report, mentioning that Bangladesh economy is expected to grow by 6.4 per cent in the current 2021-22 fiscal year while 6.9 per cent in the 2022-23 fiscal.

Meanwhile, the UN report also predicted India’s real GDP growth to be 6.5 per cent, Maldives 16.5 per cent, Nepal’s growth 5.5 per cent, Afghanistan 4.8 per cent, Bhutan 4.5 per cent, Pakistan 4.2 per cent, and Sri Lanka’s growth 2.6 per cent in 2022.

According to the report, the global economy is projected to grow by 4 per cent in 2022 - down from 5.5 per cent last year - and expand 3.5 per cent in 2023 amid new waves of Covid-19 infections, labour market challenges, supply-chain constraints and rising inflation.

“For the vast majority of developing countries, a full recovery of GDP per capita will remain elusive. The gap between what they will achieve and what they would have achieved without the pandemic will persist well into 2023,” the report projected.