Growth in some developing Asian countries, including Bangladesh and India, will go down further due to a worsening the financial and banking crisis in Europe and a sluggish recovery in the United States, the Asian Development Bank said yesterday.

“Economic growth in developing Asia moderated during the first half of 2012 as slower growth in the US and the euro area reduced demand for the region's exports,” the lender said in a report.

Worries over the strength of important developing economies have emerged, according to the Asian Development Bank Outlook Supplement.

The supplement outlook did not say anything directly about Bangladesh. However, the outlook published in April projected Bangladesh's GDP (gross domestic product) growth at 6.2 percent for fiscal 2012, down from 6.7 percent a year ago.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics projected the growth at 6.3 percent in its provisional estimate.

However, Finance Minister AMA Muhith is still hopeful that growth would reach 7 percent in the final calculation.

The ADB predicts developing Asia will expand by 6.6 percent in 2012 and 7.1 percent in 2013, lower than 6.9 percent and 7.3 percent forecast in the lender's Asian Development Outlook published in April.

India's outlook, meanwhile, is clouded by a combination of high inflation and poor demand, both externally and internally.

India's economy is now expected to grow by 6.5 percent this year, down from the previous forecast at 7 percent.

South Asia's economy is expected to grow by 6.2 percent in 2012 and 6.9 percent in 2013. The earlier forecast said the growth would be 6.6 percent and 7.1 percent respectively.

South Asia's economic growth will moderate as the weaker global environment reduces exports and investment inflow. Although somewhat offset by stable inward remittance, widening trade deficits have led to the depreciation of most currencies in the sub-region.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th July 2012