Bangladesh economy

Inflation, tariff risks keep Bangladesh on tight monetary path

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.

How we could broaden our export base

Diversifying Bangladesh’s export basket has been a high-priority policy objective for many years.

A roadmap to restore banking sector stability

Some banks are simply non-viable and suffer from inherent governance problems.

Rethinking our investment strategy

There is ample evidence showing that both domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) have a significant positive effect on economic growth.

Economy to face 7 challenges in FY26

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.

Economy grows 3.97% in FY25, slowest since pandemic year

The estimate is almost close to the projection by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 3.8 percent for the year.

Opinion / How is the economy doing?

The silver lining is that the economy isn’t falling apart

BB eyes rate cut to 7% if inflation slows to 5% by March

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.

How agro-processing can secure Bangladesh’s export resilience

Bangladesh's agro-processed exports are already rising.

January 25, 2023
January 25, 2023

ADP revision: Govt doing opposite of what’s needed

It seems the government is doing an about-turn from the austerity stance taken at the start of the fiscal year.

January 23, 2023
January 23, 2023

Avoid middle-income trap at all costs

Bangladesh should be careful about falling into the middle-income trap, said Axel van Trotsenburg, the World Bank’s managing director of operations.

January 19, 2023
January 19, 2023

Balance of payments deficit to go thru the roof this fiscal year

Bangladesh’s balance of payments (BoP) deficit would widen massively in the current fiscal year than the central bank had earlier projected owing to escalated imports, lower remittances and export receipts, and higher accumulation of debts.

January 19, 2023
January 19, 2023

No visible step from BB to ease importers’ woes

The Bangladesh Bank is yet to take any visible measure in line with a commerce ministry directive aimed at asking banks to earmark a portion of their foreign currency holdings to open letters of credit to import essentials ahead of Ramadan. 

January 18, 2023
January 18, 2023

Money or no money, crisis persists

We are told that taka is available, and then it’s not there anymore.

January 17, 2023
January 17, 2023

Decision on the IMF loan January 30

Bangladesh’s $4.5 billion loan programme with the International Monetary Fund is expected to get the final approval on January 30, said the lender’s visiting top official yesterday.

January 16, 2023
January 16, 2023

Feeble monetary policy against challenges

Bangladesh Bank yesterday unveiled a wishy-washy monetary policy for the next six months that will prove to be ineffective in tackling the headwinds passing through the economy.

January 12, 2023
January 12, 2023

IMF $4.5B Loan: Deputy MD to get a taste of Bangladesh

There would not be any further negotiations on the $4.5 billion loan programme during International Monetary Fund’s deputy managing director Antoinette Monsio Sayeh’s forthcoming visit to Bangladesh.

January 11, 2023
January 11, 2023

WB forecasts 5.2pc GDP growth

The World Bank yesterday delivered yet another bad news for the economy as the Washington-based multilateral lender pared back Bangladesh’s growth forecast for this fiscal year by 1.5 percent to 5.2 percent.

December 31, 2022
December 31, 2022

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.