Bangladesh Bank hikes policy rate by 25 basis points to 8%

The central bank of Bangladesh today raised the benchmark policy rate by 25 basis points to 8 percent to bring down the runaway inflation.

It comes as the Bangladesh Bank unveiled the monetary policy for the second half of the current fiscal year.

The BB maintained a contractionary policy stance in the July-December of 2023-24 in its efforts to reduce demand and contain prices.

As such, it hiked the policy rate, or repo rate, twice to 7.75 percent to increase the cost of money.

Additionally, to refine liquidity management, the Standing Lending Facility (SLF) rate has been reduced by 25 basis points to 9.50 percent.

The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate has been increased by 75 basis points to 6.50 percent.