Rejaul Karim Byron

The financial account of the balance of payments (BoP) turned negative in the first five months of the current fiscal year, highlighting the challenges Bangladesh is facing in protecting its foreign currency reserves from depletion as funds outflows exceeded inflows. 

Bangladesh has agreed to as many as 30 conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the $4.5 billion loan programme that includes some key structural reforms stalled for years.

The government has taken a fresh initiative to import rice amid concerns that the domestic procurement target during the ongoing Aman season might not be achieved. 

A retired secondary school teacher in Satkhira not entitled to pensions had planned to use a portion of other service benefits to purchase savings certificates to meet some of his family expenses with the interest income.  

The state coffers were robbed of Tk 258 crore for 26 counts of irregularities by the Chattogram Port Authority between fiscal 2017-18 and 2019-20, found the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Although Bangladesh stepped into a new year with various economic pressures stemming from global events, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said he was confident that the country would not backtrack but make steady progress from where it was now. 

The government has trimmed its growth forecast for this fiscal year by a whole percentage point to 6.5 percent as the energy shortage and inflation dampened economic activities.

The government has retreated from its decision to develop a portion of Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City in Gazipur’s Kaliakoir on a public-private partnership (PPP) model due to lukewarm response from developers. 

The finance division has strictly asked ministries and divisions not to demand any additional money beyond the amount allocated this year.

After the prime minister’s directive, the Finance Division yesterday asked the authorities to cut government spending on land acquisition, building construction, and machinery purchase.

The eight fast track projects being implemented by the government are seeing mixed progress with four having made significant progress as of November this year while the rest may not see timely completion.

The central bank is set to return to its semiannual monetary policy stance after three years as per a suggestion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but local economists say the move would not bring about any change amid the lending rate cap and multiple exchange rates. 

Unusual investment decisions made by the state-run Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) could inflict a loss of Tk 438 crore on taxpayers as the funds have either turned into default loans or remained largely unrealised, according to an audit report.

Despite having a strong emerging regulatory framework and a relatively mature market, public-private partnership (PPP) projects in Bangladesh have attracted far lower investments than requirements owing to implementation challenges, lack of long-term financing, and dated laws.

Though inflation continued to undergo a downward trend for a third consecutive month in November, non-food inflation in rural areas entered into double digits last month for the first time in recent times. 

The government managed to implement 85 per cent of the budget in the last fiscal year despite spending a huge amount as subsidies and incentives, raising questions about the trend of unveiling bigger budgets year after year.  

The government has taken an initiative to set up four new vehicle inspection centres (VICs) to control emissions.

With a $21-billion inward remittance anticipated, Bangladesh is likely to be the seventh highest recipient of remittance globally this year, said the World Bank’s latest report.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has become the first multilateral lender to respond to Bangladesh’s call for budget support this fiscal year to weather the impacts of the Ukraine war after its board approved $250 million last week.

Electricity and gas prices can now be adjusted without a public hearing after the cabinet yesterday amended a law, paving the way for introducing dynamic energy pricing in Bangladesh.