The Asia Development Bank has updated its growth rate projection for the developing countries in Asia. According the updated Asian Development Bank Outlook 2008 Update, regional economic growth for 2008 is scaled down to 7.5% due to "unstable financial markets and rising commodity prices." It projects that the regional growth in 2009 to be 7.2%. Meanwhile, inflation rate is expected to be 7.8% (up from 5.1%) in 2008 and 6% in 2009. Clearly, rising food and fuel prices are pushing up price level and putting strain in GDP growth rates.
The figure below shows statistics for South Asia:
Meanwhile, for Nepal the report shows some encouraging numbers.
- GDP growth rate in 2008: 5.6% (up from 2.6% in 2007)
- GDP growth rate in 2009 (projected): 5.0%
- Inflation as of mid-July 2008: 13.4%
- Expected average inflation in 2009: 8.5%
- Budget surplus in 2008: 1.9% of GDP (improvement from a deficit of 0.1% in 2007)
- Expected budget surplus in 2009: 1.5% of GDP (supported by sustained growth in remittances and tourism receipts)
