Monitoring Desk
KABUL: A new report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) shows that Afghanistan’s economic growth will be around 2.5 percent during the current year.
The ADB report shows that Afghanistan’s economic growth will be three percent in 2020.
“Our outlook for 2019 is that economic growth will grow from 2.2 in 2018 to 2.5 percent. We expect the improved economic performance because we expect improved performance in the agriculture sector,” said ADB Country Director Samuel Tumiwa.
Uncertainty in the political sphere and the presidential elections have been hindering the country’s economic growth, says the ADB report.
According to the ADB report, reduction in the international aid, lack of working capacity in government institutions in tackling the development projects were also among the key factors behind the decrease economic growth.
ADB states that inflation rate in Afghanistan was three percent despite the country had recorded 0.3 percent growth compared to the last year.
The ADB report says that inflation rate will be around 4.5 percent next year.
“The economic forecast for 2018 estimated 2.2 percent, the low level of GDP growth attributed mainly to the security and political conditions as well as drought that hit most of the country,” said Tumiwa. “For 2019, growth is forecast to slightly increase to 2.5 percent, there are three reasons for this, we expect the pickup in agriculture sector because of the increased rainfall. However it is going to be tempered by 3 factors, one is the continuing security and political situation including the elections that are coming up and they were continuing to way on the economy.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of economy said Afghanistan in the view of its economic condition, population growth, poverty and unemployment needs seven percent economic growth.
“Based on the statistics we had, our economic growth in 2018 was around 2.7 percent while in 2019 it will be around three percent. However economic growth in 2020 will be over three percent,” said Suhrab Bahman, spokesman for Ministry of Economy. (TOLOnews)
