Rejaul Karim Byron

US rating agency Moody’s Investors Service yesterday changed its outlook for Bangladesh’s banking system to stable from negative, which will relieve the central bank boss of stress.

The government is going to start implementing the newly-formulated mechanism for setting fuel prices in line with global market rates by the end of this month and officials of the energy and finance division believe prices may reduce after the first adjustment.

The government has at last introduced the automated fuel pricing mechanism that will see the domestic fuel prices adjust in line with the prices in the international market every month.

The government has decided to increase electricity prices by Tk 0.34 and Tk 0.70 a unit from March, which according to experts will have a domino effect on the prices of essentials ahead of Ramadan.

The World Bank has recommended Bangladesh put in place a unified exchange rate and tighten monetary policy further in order to tame persistently high inflationary pressure and end the foreign exchange crisis.

When Bangladesh is facing a reserve squeeze, it has received fresh commitments for $7.2 billion in loans from global lenders in the first seven months of fiscal 2023-24, a fourfold increase from a year earlier.

Foreign loan repayment, which was hovering around $3 billion since fiscal 2012-13, crossed the $4 billion-mark for the first time last fiscal year on the back of high interest payments and short-term loans in the power and energy sector.

Bangladesh’s gross domestic product grew 5.78 percent in the last financial year, one of the slowest paces of expansion in 13 years, as consumption nosedived, according to the final figures published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Inflation in Bangladesh climbed 45 basis points to 9.86 percent in January, official figures showed yesterday, defying measures undertaken by the central bank recently to bring consumer prices under control.

The objective of the project is to make them eligible to earn foreign currency through freelancing

In a move unseen in recent years, the government is going to cut the size of the fund meant for its own use while revising the annual development programme (ADP) for the current fiscal year.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has missed its December deadline to publish a quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) report, under a move to provide a timely status of the health of the economy.

The private sector’s short-term foreign debt fell 1.43 percent to $11.79 billion in December from a month ago as taking loans from the domestic source has turned out to be more attractive than borrowing from abroad, Bangladesh Bank figures showed

The prospect of having another major metro rail route in Dhaka looks bright as financing for the construction of the southern route of Mass Rapid Transit Line-5 has been confirmed.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the latest monetary policy adopted by the Bangladesh Bank would help to curb inflation, but added that further measures would be needed to make it durable.

The number of unemployed people in the country increased by about 40,000 year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 23.5 lakh as women stepped back from gainful employment.

The government has made lesser allocations for the education and health sectors than what is projected in the 8th five-year plan, raising questions about its commitment to these critical areas.

A planning commission meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday after eight years took three vital decisions to ensure timely completion of projects and avoid cost overruns.

For the first time in eight years, a high-powered committee will hold a meeting tomorrow with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to find ways to reduce waste in government projects.

Bangladesh has met all but one quantitative target set for December 2023 by the International Monetary Fund to qualify for the third instalment of the $4.7 billion loan.