GDP growth target of 6.5% projected

GDP growth target of 6.5% projected

Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury has not backed down from his high growth target even during this time of economic crisis. Despite high inflation, investment drought, slow government spending, foreign debt crisis and revenue deficit, he is expecting 6.5 percent growth in the upcoming fiscal year 2026-27. He announced this target while presenting the proposed budget in parliament on Thursday.

This is 2.36 percentage points higher than the estimated growth for the ending fiscal year 2025-26. On Wednesday, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) said that growth in the current fiscal year was 4.14 percent. The interim government had set a target of 5.5 percent in the current 2025-26 budget.

The GDP has been estimated at Tk 68.30 lakh crore in the proposed budget of Tk9.38 thousand crore. In the revised budget for the fiscal year ending on 2025-26, its size was Tk60,80,320 crore. However, according to the provisional estimate of BBS, the GDP size in the fiscal year 2025-26 is Tk61,20,209 crore — Bangladesh's GDP has crossed half a trillion for the first time.

In his budget speech, the Finance Minister said, "The foundation of a strong and prosperous economy is built on the creativity, labor, skills and productive capacity of every citizen of the country. That is why the current government has embarked on the path of inclusive economic transformation."

He said that the government aims to increase real GDP growth to 8.5 percent, reduce inflation to 5 percent, increase foreign direct investment to 2.7 percent of GDP and total investment to 40 percent of GDP by the 2030-31 fiscal year.

Stating that this plan will be implemented in three phases, Amir Khasru said that they are considering it as a '3R strategy' - recovery (one year), transition (one to three years) and building a prosperous economy (five years).