Dhaka: The World Bank on Monday said achieving the targeted 7 percent GDP growth in the next fiscal year (2015-‘16) would not be impossible, but might be a challenging task.

‘For achieving that the most important thing is to maintain political stability on a consistent basis and need to enhance the rate of investment significantly,’ said Zahid Hussain, the lead economist of the World Bank Dhaka Office.

He was addressing a press conference at the WB office in the city on the proposed budget for the fiscal upcoming fiscal year.

World Bank’s acting Country Head Salman Zaidi made the introductory remarks on the occasion.

Earlier, on 4 June, Finance minister AMA Muhith placed a Tk 2,95,100 crore budget for the FY16 eying a 7 percent GDP growth.

Considering the size, source of financing and announcement for reform programmes, as overall assessment, Zahid Hussain termed the proposed budget for the next fiscal year as usual in size.

‘There might be constraints for financing of the budget while there could be also some deficit in intentions and initiatives towards reform programmes on budget management and economic policy,’ he said.

The World Bank Lead Economist in his power-point presentation said the new medium-term macroeconomic framework is relatively more realistic.  

‘It requires political stability on consistent basis and significantly increasing investment rate from the current 29 percent to 33.5 percent of GDP for achieving the target of 7 percent GDP growth,’ he said.

The World Bank Lead Economist said the 6.2 percent inflation target in the FY16 is a realistic one with a consistent monetary programme while the Balance of Payment surplus may shrink due to increased current account deficit, but reserves expected to remain comfortable.  

He also hoped that the exchange rate stability is likely to be sustained.