SAT Desk
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered Bangladesh's economic growth projection for FY26 to 4.9% from the previous 5.4% made in June.
In its latest World Economic Outlook for October 2025 released Tuesday, the multilateral lender also projected that the rate of inflation would stand at 8.7% in FY26, an upward revision of its June projection of 6.2%.
Earlier on October 7, the World Bank in its latest Bangladesh Development Update stated that the country was expected to maintain an upward growth trajectory in the medium term, but urgent reforms were critical to sustaining growth and job creation, especially for youth and women. It projected that gross domestic product (GDP) growth would rise to 4.8% in FY26 from 4% in FY25, and to 6.3% in FY27. The IMF in its Tuesday's release also downgraded the global growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points from its forecast a year earlier.
It projected global growth at 3.2% for this year and 3.1% for next year, a cumulative downgrade of 0.2 percentage points.
Global growth is holding steady despite major policy shifts. The increase in tariffs and its effect has been smaller than expected so far. This is thanks to new trade deals, multiple exemptions, and the private sector's agility in rerouting supply chains, said IMF's chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, unveiling the outlook.
Yet, beneath the steady surface, complex forces are at work, he warned.
Gourinchas said easy financial conditions and a weaker dollar, fiscal stimulus in some major countries, and surging artificial intelligence investment were all shaping activity and inflation dynamics.
