The IMF thinks this economy will grow fastest this year

Apr 15, 2016

This article is published in collaboration with Quartz.

Silhouetted workers walk in front of office towers in the Canary Wharf financial district in London February 16, 2011. New Bank of England forecasts opened the door on Wednesday for interest rates to rise slowly in Britain but Governor Mervyn King warned against jumping to conclusions about when the central bank would pull the trigger.

The IMF's World Economic Outlook has forecast economic growth for 2016. Image: REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Matt Phillips

Reporter, Quartz

Our Impact

What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Financial and Monetary Systems?

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Banking and Capital Markets is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Banking and Capital Markets

It will take decades for Myanmar to undo some of the economic damage inflicted by the military regime that ruled the country for more than 50 years.

The IMF's GDP growth predictions for 2016.

Image: IMF, Quartz

But after the country installed its first civilian government in decades in March, the healing is under way. In the latest World Economic Outlook , the International Monetary Fund forecasts Myanmar’s economy will grow by 8.6% in 2016, the fastest pace among the nearly 200 countries for which the organization provided forecasts.

The country’s agriculture sector has tremendous potential—Burma was once the world’s largest rice exporter—and its workforce could staff the kinds of factories that are driving the growth of textiles and footwear in Vietnam.

Still, there’s a long way to go. With per capita GDP of a bit below $1,300 in 2015, Myanmar remains one of the of the world’s poorest countries. Its per capita GDP is wedged between Bangladesh and Yemen.

Burma’s road will be long and hard. The world should wish the country luck.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.