The International Monetary Fund has further cut its real GDP growth forecast for Bangladesh in fiscal 2023-24 to 5.7 percent from its previous projection of 6 percent.

The IMF updated its predictions from October in its latest global outlook report released on Tuesday.

In the report a year ago, it had put Bangladesh’s growth outlook at 6.5 percent.

The Bangladesh government set a growth target of 7.5 percent in the budget for FY24.

But economists doubt if the target can be achieved amid high inflation and a persistent dollar crisis.

The IMF projected that consumer prices in the country will rise by 7.9 percent by the end of the fiscal year.

Although the projected rate is lower than the 9.7 percent rise in FY23, it is up from the 7.2 percent the IMF had predicted in the last report.

The IMF said Bangladesh’s GDP growth is likely to rise slightly to 6.6 percent in 2024-25 fiscal year.

The World Bank earlier projected Bangladesh’s GDP growth in the 2023-24 fiscal year to 5.6 percent and the Asian Development Bank to 6.1 percent.

The IMF said the global economy is set for another year of slow but steady growth, with US strength pushing world output through headwinds from lingering high inflation, weak demand in China and Europe, and spillovers from two regional wars.

The IMF forecast global real GDP growth of 3.2 percent for 2024 and 2025 - the same rate as in 2023.

The 2024 forecast was revised upward by 0.1 percentage point from the previous World Economic Outlook's estimate in January, largely due to a significant upward revision in the US outlook.