Kathmandu, January 11 : The World Bank Group has projected that Nepal’s economic growth will stand at 5.9 percent in the current fiscal year 2018/19. In June 2018, it had made a forecast that the country would post a 4.5 percent growth.
Releasing its flagship report ‘Global Economic Prospects’ recently, the World Bank Group said, “The growth is forecast to decelerate to 5.9 percent in the current fiscal year as Nepal’s strong post-earthquake momentum is expected to moderate.
According to the report, the growth will be underpinned by strong infrastructure investment and consumption.
It also forecast a continuous economic growth of 6 percent for the next three fiscal years.
On the economic performance of the country in the last fiscal year, the report said: “Less favorable monsoons led to weakness in agricultural activity, but this was offset by a recovery in remittances and robust industrial sector growth, particularly for manufacturing activities.”
However, the latest growth projection of 5.9 percent is lower than the economic growth rate that Nepal had achieved in FY 2017/18. The country recorded an economic growth of 6.3 percent last year.
The said forecast is also lower than the recent projection made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the target set by the government. In December last year, the IMF had made a growth projection of 6.5 percent for Nepal. Likewise, the government has set an ambitious growth target of 8 percent for the current fiscal year.
Compared only with the economic growth forecast made by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the recent forecast of the World Bank Group is higher.
Asian Development Bank (ADB), in its macroeconomic update in September last year, had said that the country was likely to post 5.5 percent economic growth in the current FY.
