DHAKA, April 28 (NsNewsWire) — The following is the country briefing notes of UNESCAP report titled, “Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2016”:

“Bangladesh has sustained a robust and resilient economic growth rate of more than 6% in the past several years. In 2015, output grew by 6.5%, up from 6.1% in 2014, despite political turmoil in the third quarter.

Although the share of private consumption in GDP has trended downwards in recent years, household spending continued to propel the economy in 2015,supported by lower inflation, higher workers’ remittances and farm incomes, and rising public sector wages and transfer payments.

•

Garment exports, accounting for more than 80% of total exports, were sluggish on subdued orders from Europe and lower cotton prices. Despite favourable workers’ remittances, strong import demand and tepid export of goods pushed the current account balance into a deficit of 0.8% of GDP in 2015, the first short fall in three years.

•

Inflation dropped slightly to 6.4% in 2015 amid a vigilant monetary policy and a stable exchange

rate that enabled pass-through of lower global food prices.

•

The outlook for growth remains optimistic, with growth being projected at 6.8% in 2016 and 7%

in 2017.

•

Apart from strong

household spending supported by steady employment growth, economic

gro

wth should

als

o benefit from a

supportive macroeconomic policy

stance, including a

50-basis

point reduction in the policy rate in Janua

ry 2016 and the planned, larger

fiscal deficit of 5% o

f

GDP for the fiscal year 2016.

On the downside, high non

-performin

g loans could cons

train the

growth of bank loans.

•

Despite strong gr

owth performance in past years, several medium

-term

development

challenges remain.

These include, among others, the need to reduce infrastructure and energy

shortages, broaden the

export

base beyond garments and ensure decent work

conditions and

labour rights. To promote economic

diversification, a skills development programme for

the ship

building industry has been introduced.

•

The

Government also plans to increase the tobacco tax

and i

ntroduce a uniform 15% value-

added tax rate and

a 5% supplementary duty on mobile telephone usage

to shore up fiscal

resources. With regard to social

development, the Government is scaling up school

feeding

programmes, its maternal health voucher

scheme and an integrated microcredit programme.”