Finance
Taka policy in a changing world
It is still widely believed that depreciation of taka vis-à-vis foreign currencies—especially US dollar—will boost Bangladesh’s export earnings. This is true only if our exports are priced or invoiced in Bangladeshi taka. For example, if a shirt made in Bangladesh is invoiced at Tk 1,000, at an exchange rate of USD 1 = Tk 85, the shirt will cost USD 11.76 in the international market.
Privatisation increases corruption
International financial institutions (IFIs) have typically imposed wide-ranging policy reforms—called “conditionalities”—in exchange for country governments to secure access to financial assistance.
The PM’s China visit
It is undeniable that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has, quite deftly, made the most of the fast-changing regional and global geopolitics, eventually emerging as a strong leader in South Asia.
2019 SUMMER DAVOS FORUM / An open world economy in a new era of globalisation
The 2019 Summer Davos Forum, also known as the “World Economic Forum’s 13th Annual Meeting of the New Champions,” was held during July 1-3, 2019 in the coastal city of Dalian in northeast China’s Liaoning province.
Consumer Rights Violations / Why filing complaints is absolutely necessary
I assume there is hardly anyone amongst us who has never felt cheated after buying a product or taking a service in exchange for money.
What does Bangladesh gain from the US-China trade war?
As the US-China trade war intensifies, pundits on both sides of the Pacific and elsewhere are wondering: who is the real winner?
The emerging cracks in our external sector
The robust external sector performance has been a strong pillar on which Bangladesh’s impressive macroeconomic stability and growth of recent years was founded. The strong performance was underwritten by several factors.
Smart priorities for the new government’s first budget
Since 2015, Copenhagen Consensus and BRAC have collaborated on Bangladesh Priorities to create a bridge between policy and research. This is driven by the belief that, with limited resources and time, it is crucial that decisions are informed by what will do the most good for each taka spent.
How zakat can eliminate poverty
According to a research done by Dr. Kabir Hassan, Prof. University of New Orleans, it has been calculated that each year BDT 25,000 crore of zakat can be obtained from Bangladesh and if distributed properly each extremely poor family can get two million taka from this huge fund.
The Moral Compass
The fact that the country's actual default loan amount - including that of written-off loans - in the country's banking sector has exceeded Taka 1 trillion mark for the first time, qualifies us to be one of the leaders of the corporate shame club.
The Immediate Tasks at Hand
More than three months have passed since the Bangladesh Bank (BB) heist, and in the interim much water has flown down the Padma, Meghna,
VAT law could spell trouble
That the government needs to increase revenue is understandable, given that we are looking at wholesale promotions within the bureaucracy and a new revised wage board that has to be implemented for State officials. However, one has to take into account at what cost will revenue be increased. Going by what has been published in the press, everything from electricity to apparels will be more expensive – products and services will boast at least a 15 percent increase in selling price.
A tribute to a champion of the deprived
I can think of few people who have done more for the world's deprived population than Fazle Hasan Abed.
Reforms for higher investment cannot be delayed
It should not be surprising that private sector investment's share in GDP is shrinking. Banks are drowning in excess cash to the point where call money rate collapsed to historic lows.
Digital Bangladesh - Right to information and climate finance
Unfortunately, so far, our performance on both transparency as well as accountability has not been very good. Fortunately, there is still time to improve this before the major climate change funds begin to flow.
Helping farmers in the lean season
In northern rural Bangladesh, the autumn lean season is the most difficult time of year, especially in Rangpur, where close to half of the 15.8 million residents live below the poverty line.
The Treasury Officer and those dark days of March 1971
This is the story of my father who was a civil servant assigned as the treasury officer of Dhaka in 1971.
Reducing cyber risk of banks
Guidelines on Internal Control & Compliance for Banks were issued by the central bank on March 8, 2016, which recommended the commercial banks to take insurance as a risk mitigation measure. Such insurances are not over-the-counter products, and must be customised as per each bank's unique exposures.