Bangladesh, Oct. 16 -- Aspate of downgraded economic projections, from Bretton Woods to Manila, has raised eyebrows on the near-term outlook for the Bangladesh economy. First the Asian Development Bank (ADB), then the World Bank (WB) and now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have expressed their diffidence, which is basically what a downgrade in projections implies. The ADB's country-specific releases of the latest Asian Development Outlook (ADO) on September 23 had downgraded its earlier projection of 4.5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the current fiscal to 4 percent. At the same time its inflation projection was revised upward from an earlier 8.8 percent to 9 percent.

Then the World Bank's latest Bangladesh Develo...