The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to provide $1.15 billion to Bangladesh in the third instalment under its multi-billion-dollar loan programme. An IMF team reached a staff-level agreement with the government of Bangladesh on the policies needed to complete the second review under the ECF/EFF/RSF arrangements, the global lender said in a press release today. The…

Bangladesh should prioritise sustainable revenue generation to bolster investments in social welfare and development initiatives and include tax policy and administrative measures in the budget for the upcoming financial year to augment tax collections, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today. “At the same time, a medium- and long-term revenue strategy, with an accompanying implementation…

The Bangladesh Bank’s decisions of hiking the policy rate, allowing the market to determine the interest rate and a more flexible exchange rate will be helpful for the country to take the economy out of the crisis, a top economist said today. “It is a good step forward. The rate of interest may rise for private…

Best Holdings, which operates five-star hotel Le Méridien Dhaka, registered a 32 percent year-on-year growth in profit in the July-March period of the current fiscal year of 2023-24, attributing it to an increase in occupancy. The profit amounted to Tk 105.31 crore, according to its unaudited financial statements. It was Tk 79.62 crore in the…

Nearly 80 percent of households of plainland ethnic minority communities have no access to credit, be it formal or informal sources, as per a new study made public yesterday. Over 80 percent of the households are afflicted by poverty. In contrast, the national average for rural areas was 20.5 percent in 2022. Moreover, the average…

Bangladesh yesterday made three major decisions to cushion the economy against critical risks such as stubborn inflation and depletion of foreign currency reserves.In a rare move, the central bank devalued the local currency by Tk 7 to Tk 117, the steepest slide in a day against the mighty dollar. What is more, it loosened its age-old…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) emphasised more reforms in the banking sector and tax collections and reducing subsidies to help the economy turn around. “Reducing banking sector vulnerabilities remains a priority. Efforts to implement the non-performing loan reduction strategy should help support the growing financing needs of the economy,” said an IMF mission statement yesterday…

“Businesses will find the central bank’s move of the market-based interest rates painful as the cost of borrowing will rise. But the policies have been taken in the right direction,” Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said today. He shared the view after the Bangladesh Bank took three major…

After a gap of four years, the banking sector in Bangladesh has returned to a market-driven interest rate regime at the prescription of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in order to step up its fight against elevated level of inflation.The central bank also raised the policy rate by 50 basis points to 8.5 percent, aiming…