KABUL (SW): Today, the World Bank released its new report on Afghanistan’s development, titled “How fast will Afghanistan's Economy Ggrow in 2017 and Beyond?” The bank predicted that Afghanistan’s economic growth will increase from 2.2 percent to 2.6 percent this year.
Afghanistan’s economic growth is projected to edge up to 3.2% in 2018, assuming no further deterioration in the secuirty environemnt.
Shubham Choudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan said that economic slowdown has been seen since 2012 due to the deteriorating security situation.
Afghanistan’s economic growth reached 9.6 percent between 2003 and 2012, in 2015 it was 1.1 percent and in 2016 it was 2.2 percent only.
The World Bank report suggested that economic growth will slow down in the medium term, but the economic growth is expected to increase over the next 2-3 years by adopting certain measures in the financial management and strategic reform areas; in this case, the growth rate by 2020 will be 3.6 percent.
The report noted that the deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan has badly affected the economy in this country, and business, consumer confidence yet to recover fully from foreign troop withdrawal.
According to the report of the World Bank, because of the government's improved tax administration and better compliance, revenue collection is on track to reach the addnual budgeted target by the end of this fiscal year. The statistics showed that in the first eight months of this year the domestic revenues increased by almost 13 percent in comparison to the same period in previous year.
ENDS
