Dhaka: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on Thursday said Bangladesh’s GDP growth in the current fiscal year will be 6.8 percent.

The UN body came up with the projection while launching its flagship publication ‘Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific 2016’ at an event at IDB Bhaban in the city.

UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert D Watkins and CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya also spoke at the programme.

Placing the survey report, ESCAP economic affair officer Bangkok Shuvojit Banerjee said, ‘The outlook for growth (of Bangladesh) remains optimistic, with growth being projected at 6.8 percent in 2016 and 7 percent in 2017.’

Apart from strong household spending supported by steady employment growth, economic growth should also benefit from a supportive macroeconomic policy stance, including a 50-basis point reduction in the policy rate in January 2016 and the planned, larger fiscal deficit of 5 percent of GDP for the fiscal year 2016, the survey said.

On the downside, it said, high non-performing loans could constrain the growth of the bank loans.

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

Earlier on April 5 last, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said Bangladesh is set to overcome its six percent GDP growth ‘trap’ the end of the current fiscal year as per a provisional estimate.

‘This is a matter of pride for the whole nation as we’re going to achieve 7.05 percent GDP growth rate for the first time,’ he said while briefing reporters after a meeting of National Economic Council (NEC) held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

As his attention was drawn to the government’s GDP growth projection, Shuvojit Banerjee said their estimation is a slight lower than the government’s one. ‘Our projection is very close to the government’s one. I think we made the estimate with more optimism than other organisations.’