This decision is a pragmatic step, regardless of whether it was motivated by the necessity of meeting IMF program conditions for the 4th and 5th disbursements
With a flexible exchange rate, BB can now shift its focus toward domestic economic priorities such as inflation control, employment growth, and financial stability instead of continuously defending the currency
The interim government (IG) is set to present its FY26 budget on June 2. The anticipation is that their budget will depart from the past.
The interim government, unburdened by political motivations, has no need to seek popular acclaim
The bilateral trade in goods between the US and China faces the risk of being severed due to the imposition of steep tariffs
On April 2, 2025, US President Trump introduced sweeping reciprocal tariffs, effectively reversing nearly all US tariff liberalisation since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The average US tariff surged from 2.5 percent to 20 percent with a single executive action
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has adjusted the monetary programme for the current fiscal year. Although the adjustment is limited to just one component, it is a big one.
Like dead characters in Hollywood and Bollywood movies, paradoxes seem to reappear in Bangladesh’s economic landscape more often than analysts would like. Here are two new arrivals:
The debate on taka devaluation is a debate on whether the exchange rate is currently overvalued. How do we know?
Most economic indicators on the state of the Bangladesh economy during the first half of FY20 are down with one big exception—remittances.
In an interview published in this newspaper on January 3, the finance minister stated unequivocally “no currency devaluation”. Is such a sweeping stance compatible with the government’s own economic policy objectives?
It’s deja vu all over again. On June 21, 2018, Bangladesh Association of Bankers (BAB), a platform of private banks’ owners, agreed to cap the interest rate on deposits at 6 percent and the lending rate at 9 percent from July 1, 2018.
The stock of non-performing loans (NPLs) is increasing in both public and private banks. This is raising the threat to financial stability, impairing financial intermediation and damaging the resilience of the banking sector to shocks, thus increasing systemic risk. NPLs are also associated with higher funding costs and a lower supply of credit. However, the recent hot debate in Bangladesh has centred on whether high NPLs are a cause or a consequence of high lending rates.
Bangladesh needs to boost private investment from the current 23 percent of GDP to nearly 30 percent to accelerate and sustain growth as it moves up the middle-income path and strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Bangladesh has made encouraging progress on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (DB) 2020. The rank has improved by 8 places to 168 from 176 a year ago.
Bangladesh’s stock markets have been fluctuating sharply in recent years.
