Rejaul Karim Byron

Bangladesh Bank is set to give Sri Lanka another year to repay the $200 million loan as it looks to lend a helping hand to the island nation, which is going through its worst debt and economic crises.

A Chinese company is set to implement a Tk 3,975 crore digital connectivity project that will equip Bangladesh with the latest ICT infrastructure, digitise government services and increase ICT usage at the field level.

The International Monetary Fund has revised down its economic growth projection for Bangladesh to 6.4 percent for the current fiscal year largely because of Russia-Ukraine war and supply chain disruptions.

Inflation in Bangladesh rocketed to a 17-month high in March driven by higher food costs as global uncertainties stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war and supply chain disruptions show no sign of abating, official figures showed yesterday.

Over the last two years, the government has been able to utilise only around 15 percent of Tk 8,150 crore allocated for two Covid-19 emergency response projects.

The Finance Division has recommended that the government avoid hard-term loans and discourage import of luxury goods to cope with macroeconomic pressures arising from the Russia-Ukraine war.

The government has set an ambitious economic growth target of 7.5 per cent for the next fiscal year although the country faces new headwinds owing to higher prices of commodities globally and is still recovering from the shocks of the coronavirus pandemic.

The World Bank yesterday advised the government to reconsider its decision to dip into the foreign exchange reserves for development projects given the elevated balance of payment deficit and the need for exchange rate flexibility.

Bangladesh is not at risk of the crisis that Sri Lanka is currently facing, but the country needs to be cautious and learn from the experiences of the island nation, said Hans Timmer, chief economist of the World Bank for South Asia.

When Bangladesh agreed to provide $250 million to Sri Lanka last year, little did it think that it would become a side character in the horror show that is unfolding in the island nation.

Bangladesh’s debt service to revenue ratio rocketed to 81.2 per cent in the last fiscal year amid lower tax collection and higher borrowing, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Bangladesh’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign has so far turned out to be quite a triumph.

The current account deficit in Bangladesh is expected to widen to 2.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current fiscal year from 0.9 per cent a year ago because of escalating imports and a decline in remittance.

The World Bank has extended a $250 million financing to Bangladesh in budgetary support after the country has moved to bring in fiscal and financial reforms to strengthen policies to sustain growth and enhance resilience to future shocks.

The power division will receive this year’s Swadhinata Padak (Independence Award) for its outstanding job of bringing cent percent of the country under electricity coverage, said power division officials.

The government is going to repair religious establishments and build new bridges across the country following longstanding demands from lawmakers.

The Payra area in Patuakhali is going to be a major economic hub with a sea port, a special economic zone, an airport and the country’s biggest coal-fired power plant that will officially launch operation tomorrow.

Just as the economy was sailing smoothly to make a turnaround from the coronavirus pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war has suddenly emerged as a major obstacle standing in the way of faster and full revival. And this, among other things, is likely to increase poverty and eat into growth, warned the International Monetary Fund (IMF), policymakers and experts.

Saudi Arabia has shown interest in investing more than $10 billion in 15 large- and small-scale projects in Bangladesh.

Around Tk 719 crore in taxpayer money was unused in the last fiscal year because of the cancellation of foreign trips of government officials and the delay in tender processes, both owing to the coronavirus pandemic.