Biru Paksha Paul

The recent five-day banking mela (fair), held at the Bangla Academy premises, was the first of its kind in Bangladesh's history.

If we can further liberalise our trade by reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers and by removing age-old regulations, our growth will exceed even 7 percent.

Allocating more funds for training, research, technology, travel, and after-hour education will not only add more human values to the banking profession, but also make our banking sector more productive in the long-run.

Sanchayapatra – a supposed welfare instrument – is actually a Trojan horse that threatens the future of our development budget, and thus reduces growth potentials for the nation. The higher the sale of NSCs, the higher the future interest liability which will definitely eat up a bigger pie of our budget, reducing the share of the Annual Development Programme (ADP).

Given that Bangladesh has the lowest debt-GDP ratio in the region (29 percent), when compared to Sri Lanka (73 percent), Pakistan (67 percent) and India (65 percent), we can easily afford investing another $10 to 20 billion in our hugely inadequate infrastructure.

The exchange rate which Bangladesh Bank determines now has been largely market-based since May 2003, although the central bank irons out fluctuations to maintain stability in the exchange rate so that foreign investors feel confident while investing in Bangladesh.

Whenever I used to pass through John F Kennedy Airport, the massive advertisement of 'Incredible India' would draw my attention.

The reason many people do not like a market economy lies in the acid test of harsh competition. To them, the market economy is a story of losing jobs by being made redundant in the workplace.

We need to develop stricter rules and punish the wrongdoers to protect our shareholders, thereby developing a healthy capital market.

Within 50 years since its independence, Singapore set a bar which many countries cannot achieve in a hundred years. Inheriting a tiny piece of land and a poor community of inhabitants, the leadership under Lee Kuan Yew, understood that the nation would need to make the best use of its geographic advantage.

While any garbage is usually dissolved in the soil, nature fails to do so for plastic products, which remain indestructible for decades or even centuries. Burning plastic products is not a good solution either.

When I joined the first private bank of Bangladesh some 27 years ago, the definition of a good banker remained as before: a star performer who returns home at night walking with an unsteady gait almost like a drunkard. Unfortunately, the definition still applies.

Bangladesh's recent stable growth should not be branded as a low middle-income growth trap. Since independence, Bangladesh has consistently increased its average growth rate over every decade with a corresponding decrease in growth volatility.

Bangladesh Bank recently announced its monetary policy for the fiscal year 2016. As always, the announcement has sparked a number of criticisms.

The monetary policy for the fiscal year 2016 is coming soon. Its arrival in the wake of the recently announced budget will build the bridge between the Ministry of Finance and Bangladesh Bank, heralding coordination between fiscal and monetary policies.

Bangladesh's recent graduation to the lower middle income group has surprisingly received cynical comments from some corners.

Central banks should also be interested in the supply side investments that give the long run growth potential to a nation. Thus it is more important to give credit to a solar plant than a fashionable clothing store.

A national budget is different from a family budget, in that, the government fixes its expenditure first and then goes for hunting the sources of income, whereas a family gets its income and then determines the items of expenses.

Monetary policy in developing economies mainly includes five major macro variables: output growth, inflation, interest rate,