Sohel Parvez

Bangladesh’s rice production may decline in marketing year (MY) 2022-23, which began in May, as severe floods damaged pre-monsoon crop Aus in the north and northeastern regions during planting, said a USDA report released on Monday. 

Bangladesh’s steel industry is set to see the entry of a couple of large business houses while several existing steelworks are looking to expand their capacities in order to gain from the rising demand for the key construction material.

The steel manufacturing plants in Bangladesh are less polluting and the lowest carbon emitters compared to the largest producers globally, mainly for the melting process followed locally and the efficient consumption of energy and water, said a top industrialist.  

Cyclone Sitrang is over and the weather is forecast to be sunny today. But for thousands of people in Bangladesh, including farmers, it is rather gloomy. 

Cyclone Sitrang has affected 33,000 hectares of transplanted Aman paddy crop and washed away fish and shrimps mainly in the southern coastal districts, officials said yesterday.  

Growth of monthly wages of workers has consistently remained below the inflation rate, or spiral in the prices of goods and services, worsening conditions of their families. 

The ongoing liquidity stress has become a major concern for Bangladesh’s banking sector as people hardly park funds with lenders due to higher consumer prices, which have turned the return on deposits negative, said a top banker. 

Bangladesh made gains in food production and ensured the availability of rice in recent years. But surging inflation, erratic weather, and the Russia-Ukraine war affected the availability of cereals and reduced low-income people’s access to food this year.

Scrap vessel imports slumped by half in the first nine months of the year as Bangladesh Bank is discouraging lenders from opening letters of credit to curb the depletion of forex reserves amid the soaring cost of the US dollar.

Bangladeshi consumers are paying the highest ever prices to buy wheat flour as supply and private stocks of the grain slumped in the domestic market in the wake of a dip in imports since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Bangladesh is currently weathering a period of heightened external pressure and economic headwinds like it has done since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and kept growing, said a top official of a multinational bank.  

The economy of Bangladesh has continued to suffer from foreign exchange-related stress as both exports and remittances declined in September whereas import payments were almost unchanged. 

Although banks are registering increased deposits, tax collection from interest earnings of savers has slowed down significantly amid the fall of the interest rate.

Bangladesh’s export processing zones (EPZs) passed a spectacular period last fiscal year. 

For the first time, the government has framed a separate policy for marine fishing in order to ensure sustainable fishing and conserve the resources through proper management, according to a notification from the fisheries and livestock ministry.

Bangladesh has finally embraced a floating exchange rate as the central bank adjusted its interbank foreign exchange rate yesterday in line with market realities.  

Trade activities at Payra port, the country’s third largest seaport, are increasing gradually riding on coal imports for the nearby Payra 1320 MW Thermal Power Plant.

Banks yesterday fixed the buying and selling rates of the US dollar in order to contain the volatility in the foreign exchange market resulting from higher imports than export and remittances earnings. 

Unilever is operating in the South Asian markets of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. And each of the markets, including Bangladesh, has talents who are very attractive. 

India’s imposition of 20 percent duty on rice export is unlikely to affect prices of the staple in Bangladesh, according to local traders.