The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday that Bangladesh's economic growth will dip to 5.5 percent for the fiscal year ending in June from 5.9 percent the previous year due to weak textile exports and fewer Bangladeshis working abroad. Growth should recover to 6.3 percent in fiscal year 2011 if the global recovery continues and domestic business confidence and investment strengthen, AP quoted the bank as saying in a report. "As the global economy is recovering from recession, Bangladesh will benefit in the near future," said M. Zahid Hossain, chief of the bank's program in Dhaka, at a news conference. The number of Bangladeshis going abroad for work fell by 42.2 percent in the eight months through February from a year earlier, Hossain said. Bangladesh usually earns about $10 billion a year from textile exports, mainly to the United States and Europe, while Bangladeshi workers overseas send home another $10 billion. Almost half of the country's 150 million people live on less than $1 a day and natural disasters like cyclones and floods have battered its agriculture and dilapidated infrastructure. The ADB said Bangladesh needs to improve power and gas supplies, while tackling inflation will be another front to confront for better economic growth in 2011. It forecast inflation at 7.5 percent in 2010 and said it might rise to 7.8 percent in 2011.
