YANGON, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's economy is expected to grow at 6.5 percent in the fiscal year 2018-19 (October-September), said a report of the World Bank carried on state media Thursday.
"Growth continues to be broad-based, supported by the industrial and service sectors. Industrial activities revived, supported by strong performance in the garment sector and construction activities," said the World Bank's Myanmar Economic Monitor Building Reform Momentum Report launched on Tuesday.
"Acceleration of the reform agenda as envisioned in the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan, along with targeted public investment and private sector participation, will lead to a consolidation of macroeconomic stability and help Myanmar maintain its momentum and meet its long-term growth targets," said Gevorg Sargsyan, head of the office of World Bank Myanmar.
With growth expected to rise to 6.7 percent in 2020-21, the World Bank report projects a positive outlook for Myanmar's economy despite a deteriorating global environment, due to accelerated implementation of reform, infrastructure spending and investment in sectors such as wholesale and retail, insurance and banking that are undergoing liberalization.
The external risks to the economic outlook include slowing global and regional growth and escalation of trade tension and possible revocation of preferential European Union market access, the report said.
The report estimates Myanmar's inflation to stabilize at 6.6 percent in the medium term, saying that inflationary pressure could increase due to volatile global energy prices and the possibility that the government may raise electricity tariffs to bring them in line with the cost of power production.
"There are signs that market sentiment is rising due to the new laws being passed and starting to be implemented," said Hans Anand Beck, a leading economist with the World Bank Myanmar.
In the power sector, the report argues that Myanmar needs to invest twice as much and implement projects three times faster to meet growing demand.
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