In the end, the final data from state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) shows the economy grew at a respectable 5.2 percent last fiscal year, when large swathes of the global economy plunged into recession for the outbreak of coronavirus from Wuhan, China.

The Washington-based multilateral lenders -- the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- forecasted that the economy would grow between 1.6 percent and 3.8 percent in fiscal 2019-20 for the pandemic-whiplash, while the Asian Development Bank said the Bangladesh economy would expand at 4.5 percent.

But, the economic locomotive of Bangladesh appears to have outpaced all projections.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal credited the GDP growth rate to the uninterrupted economic activity before the onslaught of the coronavirus.

"Our economy was growing normally in the first seven months of the fiscal year and the growth during the period was added to the economy," he told The Daily Star over the phone last night.

https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/decent-gdp-growth-amid-extraordinary-circumstances-1943677