Zina Tasreen

It’s time for serious stocktaking

Bangladesh Bank has opened a can of worms with its revision of the balance of payment data. There is no better way to put it.

5m ago

Inflation is the new normal

Suggest steps taken in the monetary policy

11m ago

Is Yunus’s sentencing an ominous message for foreign investors?

Surely, the manner of Yunus’s sentencing does not add to the broader investor confidence in Bangladesh, and the data points already are not promising.

11m ago

Inflation hits 11-year high

If there is one indicator that epitomises the government’s mismanagement of the economy in recent times, it is inflation -- which raced to an 11-year high of 9.94 percent in May.

1y ago

A budget divorced from reality

Self-contradictory is what best describes Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s fifth budget, and the last of the Awami League-led government’s current term.

1y ago

Bracing for budget of self-preservation

In 2019, when AHM Mustafa Kamal took charge as the finance minister, the Bangladesh economy was taxing for take-off for its long-haul flight to the developed country club.

1y ago

Time to hit the reset button

This year was always supposed to be a celebration of Bangladesh’s economic progress with the opening of Padma bridge and Dhaka metro rail and 100 percent electrification.

1y ago

What is Bangladesh's current forex reserve?

Ever since Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s economic turmoil, Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves has become a part of public discourse. So much so that despite having an official figure from the central bank every week, people are speculating.

2y ago
June 10, 2020
June 10, 2020

A V-shaped economic recovery is still within reach. But the general public must play its part.

Optimism is a disease, the polemical British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie once said, and talking with Manmohan Parkash, the country director of the Asian Development Bank, one can’t help but catch that disease.

January 25, 2020
January 25, 2020

Docking bad loans has now become critical

Age is the price of wisdom, it is often said. And an audience with the immediate past finance minister, AMA Muhith, calls to mind that saying.

January 20, 2020
January 20, 2020

‘We are a nation in a hurry’

Halfway through an interview at the Planning Commission, Planning Minister MA Mannan is asked about the logic behind the inordinate number of projects that are in implementation at any given moment.

January 3, 2020
January 3, 2020

‘It’s not possible to do everything overnight’

The man with the plan, is the impression one walks away with after an audience with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal. Later, one is invariably met with the question: was he being a little too optimistic and naive?

November 23, 2019
November 23, 2019

Bangla Bond has huge demand

Gamechanger -- is what best describes the debut of Bangla Bond, a taka-denominated debt instrument, on the London Stock Exchange on November 11 for Bangladesh.

November 12, 2019
November 12, 2019

Bangla Bond Launched: Acid test for Bangladesh growth story

Much has been said about the tremendous growth momentum of the Bangladesh economy. It was amongst the fastest growing nations in the world in the past decade, as per data from the state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics -- and the trend is expected to continue into the near future, too.

October 25, 2019
October 25, 2019

Bangladesh snags its highest ranking in 6yrs

All great things start from small beginnings, it is often said. And Bangladesh’s eight-place leap forward in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 index can be viewed in this light.

October 20, 2019
October 20, 2019

Accountability the answer to real estate sector’s woes

In 2011, with great hope, Monwara Shameem had handed over her 8.25 decimals of land in Mohakhali DOHS to a reputed developer to construct a six-storied apartment building.

October 6, 2019
October 6, 2019

Never too young to get on property ladder

The template of nuclear family, in which the dad went to work and the mum stayed at home, is fast on its way out.

September 27, 2019
September 27, 2019

Banking in dire straits: Will needed to fix ills

People do not lack strength; they lack will, the French poet and novelist Victor Hugo once said. The words perfectly describe the government’s attitude thus far towards fixing the banking sector.