According to a World Bank report, with sound economic policies, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan are expected to emerge from the global economic crisis with stronger growth performances in South Asia.

Noting that growth has been weakest in countries that entered the crisis with large internal and external imbalances, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the report said that these three countries generally have sound economic policies and greater resilience of trade, investment, and remittances.

The report, Global Economic Prospects 2010, said that in general, South Asia appears to have escaped the worst effects of the global economic crisis. However, the region's GDP growth of 6 percent in 2009 remains unchanged from 2008.

From 8.7 percent in 2007 to 6 percent in 2009, the global financial crisis contributed to deceleration in real GDP growth in South Asia. This was largely driven by a pronounced decline in investment growth and private consumption.

The report also noted that although the global financial crisis had a sharp negative impact on South Asia, the slowdown in regional GDP growth was the lowest among all developing regions.

The decline in the region's merchandise export volumes was less severe but South Asia's import volumes through July 2009 declined 32 percent compared with the previous year.

Marked resilience during the crisis was demonstrated by some sectors, such as ready-made garments in Bangladesh and India's information technology industry.

The negative effects have been mitigated overall by the combination of a sharp fall in the value of imports, a less steep decline in exports, and resilient remittance inflows. (With Input from Agencies)