Sukanta Halder

Consumers were not spared even during the fasting month of Ramadan, a time to show self-restraint, even though there have been a lot of promises and drives on the part of the government. Therefore, while devotees perform their religious duty, the escalated prices of essentials have continued to give them hard times.

Textile makers in Bangladesh are witnessing slow sales ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr due to factors including a drop in demand for women's salwar-kameez amidst a high living cost and a lack of interest among the affluent class to donate clothes as Zakat to avoid hassle.

Some think that the existing supply order (SO) system is one of the reasons for the spike in the prices of essential goods such as sugar and edible oil simply because prices increase each time the document changes hands.

The narrow streets of Old Dhaka’s Moulvibazar hum with activity: commodity trading. On mobile phones, wholesalers fervently follow prices on trading floors in Chicago and London to bet on the local prices of sugar and edible oil. In and around tea stalls in this gloomy corner of Dhaka, even idle chats are centred around the price movement on the London Commodity Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the Bursa Malaysia.

Endowment is the most popular life insurance plan in Bangladesh as it offers a life cover and fixed returns

Traders have urged the government to put an end to extortion during the transportation and sales of essential goods for the greater interest of consumers during Ramadan.

More than 26 lakh insurance policies have lapsed in Bangladesh in the last 14 years owing to a raft of factors including the worsening of financial health of clients, a lack of awareness among them, and agents’ tendency not to explain product features properly while selling them.

Sugar prices have gone up at both the wholesale and retail levels amid hoarding by traders on speculation of reduced supply after the fire incident at S Alam Refinery, one of the largest raw sugar importers and refiners in Bangladesh.

The Mughal Empire restaurant in Mohammadpur of Dhaka wore a quiet look at 7:30pm Monday, normally a peak time. With only four people at one corner eating biryani, it is a stark contrast to the usual gathering of 25-30 people.

The claim settlement rate in the insurance sector of Bangladesh has risen by more than four percentage points within the span of a single year although the ratio has remained far below the global average.

Insurance premium growth decelerated in 2023 as people’s purchasing power eroded amid higher inflationary pressure, despite the sector’s immense potential in a country that has one of the lowest penetration rates in the world.

Bangladesh is set to officially launch Bancassurance today, an arrangement between banks and insurance companies to sell insurance products.

Around 53 percent of the respondents of a survey in Bangladesh said they prefer making investment in deposit pension scheme (DPS) to set aside funds for rainy days.

North South University conducted a survey with the support of MetLife Bangladesh

Retail giants and realtors are increasingly flocking to Mirpur and its surrounding areas to tap the opportunities being offered by the growing swathe of the capital.

Mirpur was best known as a garment manufacturing hub, a crime zone with rough roads, dirty alleyways, rundown buses, a capital of slums called home by apparel workers and a poor township marked by nondescript houses.

The government’s promise of containing the prices of essentials ahead of Ramadan seems to be only on paper as the prices of key items instead rose over the last month.

Eighteen non-life insurance companies spent more in 2022 on management expenses than allowed, leaving a negative impact on their overall business and eroding their capacity to settle claims.

In order to boost supplies and contain prices of essential goods during the month of Ramadan, the government took measures to alleviate the burden on consumers by reducing value added tax and import duties on four commodities -- edible oil, sugar, dates and rice on February 8.

Though there is currently no supply crunch in the country, a section of unscrupulous importers and traders have already hiked the prices of essentials, creating an artificial crisis to make extra profits ahead of Ramadan, said a home ministry report.