Stronger economic growth anticipated
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Myanmar's economy should expand by 8.3 per cent in the current fiscal year, much depending on important political events, including the planned constitutional referendum and the national elections, said the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and t
“Continued momentum in economic reforms will also be important,” it said in the "Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific Report 2015".
It projects 8.2 per cent growth in the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Economic growth in the previous fiscal year, ending March 2015, is expected to ease to 7.8 per cent from 8.3 per cent in the previous year due to weak agricultural output.
Efforts to expand the production base should be accelerated as well as the Dawei special economic zone. The report added that in addition to low-wage manufacturing, the agricultural sector is another area with great potential. Despite a large endowment of arable land and water, the level of agricultural productivity remains one of the lowest in the region.
In the past fiscal year, with strong import growth and relatively weaker export growth, the trade deficit widened to 5.5 per cent of GDP in December 2014. This, together with the strengthening of the US dollar, affected the recent depreciation of the local currency.
Inflation was observed to have risen to 5.9 per cent in 2014-15 fiscal year from 5.7 per cent in the previous year, as food prices increased due to strong domestic demand coupled with weak agricultural output.
