Bangladesh Bank has held its key policy repo rate steady at 10 percent for the first half of the current fiscal year, reaffirming its commitment to a tight monetary stance aimed at curbing persistent inflation, weak private investment, and growing uncertainty over global trade.
Diversifying Bangladesh’s export basket has been a high-priority policy objective for many years.
Some banks are simply non-viable and suffer from inherent governance problems.
There is ample evidence showing that both domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) have a significant positive effect on economic growth.
The finance ministry has identified seven major challenges including tight monetary and fiscal policies, taken to tame elevated inflation levels for more than three years, in next fiscal year that may increase unemployment.
The estimate is almost close to the projection by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 3.8 percent for the year.
The silver lining is that the economy isn’t falling apart
The Bangladesh Bank will consider slashing the policy rate to 7 percent by March, provided that rampant inflation, which has hovered above 9 percent for nearly two years, eases to 5 percent by then, Governor Ahsan H Mansur said yesterday.
Bangladesh's agro-processed exports are already rising.
The Bangladesh Business Summit could help attract a good amount of investment from abroad as the capabilities of local businesses are being highlighted at the three-day event, according to Md Jashim Uddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI).
'Lunthito Bhabishyat: Bangladesher Arthanoitik Shonkoter Chalchitra' gives an overview of Bangladesh's current economic crisis.
Bangladesh’s economic crisis will not go away if the government does not strictly adhere to the conditions tagged with the International Monetary Fund’s 42-month loan programme, said the lender’s top official.
In the end, it was a war that began some 5,800 kilometres away a year ago that laid bare the longstanding weaknesses of the Bangladesh economy.
Nearly a year ago when President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many had thought that the war would end soon
Russia’s war in Ukraine might be taking place 5,800 kilometres away from Bangladesh and the country is not involved militarily in the dragging conflict in any way, but its economy and people have been paying heavy prices.
Eight banks in Bangladesh faced a collective provisioning shortfall of Tk 19,048 crore in 2022, creating a risk for their depositors.
The International Monetary Fund would be watching the Bangladesh economy like a hawk, stipulating an extensive list of data reporting regularly as part of the conditions agreed upon for the $4.7 billion loan programme.
More than two and a half years ago, the government took a Tk 1,500 crore safety net programme for the workers who lost their jobs owing to the devastating impact of Covid-19.
The government has kept borrowing from the Bangladesh Bank as commercial banks can’t come up with much-needed funds owing to the liquidity crunch.
