Bangladesh GDP may outpace forecast

Bangladesh may have achieved economic growth slightly higher in the year to the end of June than was expected at the beginning of the fiscal year, the head of the country's central bank said on Sunday.
The country is poised to achieve 6.89 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the past year against 6.8 percent the bank hoped for earlier, Salehuddin Ahmed, governor of Bangladesh Bank, told reporters.
Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman is due to announce the country's 2006/07 budget in parliament on Thursday, finance ministry officials said.
Salehuddin said the national economy had a few bad aspects but many positives that kept growth on track.
"Despite the country facing an acute crisis of power and fertiliser, now we are almost sure that the growth of GDP will be 6.89 percent," he said.
"The positives included improvement in collection of revenue, robust export growth, rise in manufacturing production, buoyant inflow of remittances and more competition in the telecom sector with recent installation of submarine cable," the governor said.
Earlier the central bank had predicted GDP might hit 6.8 percent, outpacing the 5.5 percent achieved in 2004/05.
But Salehuddin said: "Higher GDP growth is not the last word, rather distributing the fruits to all segments of people, particularly the poor, was necessary."
He blamed unexplained "weak policies" for often holding back such an objective.
Bangladesh's overall exports achieved a 19 percent growth in 2005/06, with the knitting section leading the way with a rise of 31 percent against woven garment's 11 percent, officials said.
Garments fetch more than $6 billion a year for the impoverished country of 140 million with annual per capita income of $470.
Remittances from Bangladeshis working abroad grew 22 percent up to April, against 15 percent growth in the same period of the previous fiscal year, officials said.
Agriculture, which contributes 20 percent of GDP, also saw strong growth in the outgoing fiscal year, Salehuddin said.
But the central bank chief emphasised the "adjustment of oil prices" in the country.
"In view of the rapid rise of petroleum prices in (the) global market, it is necessary to adjust domestic fuel price to reduce the huge debt burden," he said.