The government is at odds with key donor agencies over their forecasts for GDP growth for 2009-10. Finance minister AMA Muhith, dismissing IMF and World Bank predictions on Thursday, has reiterated that growth will not be less than 6 percent and may be higher. IMF projects it at 5 percent while WB forecasts it at 5.5 percent. The Bangladesh economy achieved 5.9 percent growth in 2008-09. The target is between 5.5 and 6 percent for the current fiscal year. The finance minister in his June budget speech said the target for GDP growth was set lower than last year keeping global recession in mind.

Lat month, Muhith told bdnews24.com told that global recession had exerted no significant impact on the Bangladesh economy, and ruled out the possibility of any greater impact in future. He also said the target for GDP growth would be adjusted up this year. At a press conference on Thursday, chief of a seven-member IMF delegation, Asia Pacific adviser Masato Miyazaki, said Bangladesh's GDP growth would drop to 5 percent in 2009-10 due to the global economic slump.

Elaborating the causes, Miyazaki said import for industry, including capital machinery, has waned and so has export earnings due. Loan flow into the private sector and manpower exports have waned simultaneously, Miyazaki said. The IMF regional adviser said economic growth of Bangladesh could not exceed 5 percent, despite bumper agricultural output. The finance minister, however, ruled out the IMF forecast. Muhith said economic growth would not dip below 6 percent, and it might even be higher.

After the press conference, he told bdnews24.com, "IMF's forecast is in no way acceptable and we can say emphatically that our economic growth will not be less than 6 percent." "The impact of recession is not as severe on our economy as we thought it would be earlier." Investment is coming out of a bad phase and revenue is also rising, he said Around 10 percent growth in revenue has been achieved in the first three months of the fiscal year, Muhith said.

"Remittance inflow is rising every month and foreign exchange reserves of the central bank is about to hit $10 billion." "Under the circumstances, IMF's forecast that GDP growth would be just 5 percent can in no way be accepted," said the finance minister. On Oct 22, World Bank Dhaka office chief, Sanjay Khathuria, told the media that Bangladesh would achieve 5.5 percent economic growth in FY 2009-10. Sanjay Khathuria also attributed WB's predicted slowdown in GDP growth this year to global recession.

-bdnews