Ahsan Habib

Commodity exchange launch: CSE targets 2025, eyes cotton, gold

The stock market has bounced back strongly within two months of falling to its lowest in the past five years, thanks to some macroeconomic-level recoveries, including a drop in inflation and the strengthening of the local currency against the greenback.

Banks have several layers of professionals to regularly assess their financial health and raise early warnings at the first sign of trouble.

Renata PLC, one of the country’s leading pharmaceutical companies, discontinued nearly 30 percent of its product line in the last fiscal year after production costs outpaced selling prices, according to the company’s chief executive officer (CEO).

Nineteen banks failed to pay any dividend to shareholders for 2024. While seven posted losses, the remaining 12 reported profits but were barred from dividend payouts due to inadequate capital and deferred provisioning for bad loans.

Twenty-one banks managed to keep their bad loan ratios under 5 percent of their total lending, even amid turbulence last year that rattled the sector and eventually pushed up the industry average of bad loans to 16.8 percent.

Says its chairman in interview with The Daily Star

Ten banks lost Tk 23,700cr in deposits last year as peers saw growth of up to 32%

For three banks, 2024 brought cause for celebration as they crossed the milestone of Tk 1,000 crore in annual profits for the first time. But for nine others, it was a year of reckoning, marked by mounting losses and a desperate fight for survival.

The 50 banks collectively earned Tk 39,958 crore from treasury bonds in 2024, up from Tk 27,626 crore in the previous year, according to an analysis of their audited financial statements.

United Commercial Bank (UCB), one of the oldest private banks in Bangladesh, looks to return to sustainable profitability within around two years as it takes steps to improve governance, recover loans, and enhance asset quality.

The stock market has almost closed the books on the fiscal year (FY) 2024-25 without a single company getting listed through an initial public offering (IPO), a rare event not seen in decades.

Most listed companies saw their profits shrink in the January-March period of the current year as stubbornly high inflation pushed up business costs while weak consumer demand held back sales growth.

The government must prioritise boosting the competitiveness of all industries if it wants to create more jobs, capture a bigger share of global markets, and strengthen the economy.

If a company gets listed, it will enjoy tax benefits, and this is one of the major incentives for them to go public.

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 government expects the country’s economy to cross the $500 billion mark in the fiscal year (FY) 2026-27, buoyed by stabilising policies and sectoral improvements.

The interim government proposed a new framework for social safety net programmes, under which 7.68 crore poor people would receive Tk 37,076 crore next fiscal year to help them cushion the blow from high inflation over the last three years.

The government’s target to provide subsidies and incentives amounting to Tk 125,741 crore in fiscal year 2025-26 is creating high pressure on fund mobilisation amid a challenging macroeconomic situation.

High inflation has become the bane of low-income people’s existence for the better part of the past two years as spiralling prices have dramatically eaten away at their purchasing power.