Rejaul Karim Byron

Inflation bucked the rising trend for the second consecutive month in October, helped by the cooling off of grocery prices.

The visiting IMF staff mission yesterday enquired about the status of loan repayment to Russia, which is disconnected from the international financial system thanks to SWIFT’s ban on the country for the Ukraine war.

The government is likely to introduce dynamic fuel pricing next quarter -- a development that will dramatically lessen the subsidy burden and pave the way for enhanced social spending.

One project is seeking higher allocation, one deadline extension and three are requesting both as the government is set to place seven projects at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) tomorrow for approval.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday instructed Bangladesh Bank to intervene if any bank faced a dollar shortage while opening letters of credit for importing food, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs to ensure uninterrupted food supply.

The International Monetary Fund will be coordinating its conditions for the prospective $4.5 billion loan with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to accomplish holistic reforms.

The government has been deprived of Tk 472.7 crore for 21 counts of irregularities by Standard Asiatic Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, found an audit.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the government to rationalise the existing tariff structure by reducing various types of para and non-tariff barriers to improve competitiveness of domestic industries. 

Bangladesh Bank is anticipating the pressure on the balance of payments will blow over by the end of this fiscal year thanks to hearty assistance from development partners –-- an outlook termed wishful by economists.

The International Monetary Fund has insisted on quarterly reporting of GDP and an updated base year for computing inflation data to enable policymakers to make more time-befitting decisions.

The visiting mission of the International Monetary Fund has called for a pricing formula for fuel, fertiliser, electricity and gas by next fiscal year and cut back on subsidy spending to efficient budget financing.

Known knowns -- is what best sums up the prognosis of the visiting International Monetary Fund mission so far as it looks to thrash out the conditions for the prospective $4.5 billion loan.

The International Monetary Fund asked Dhaka to withdraw the interest rate cap on lending, report net foreign currency reserves and introduce market-based exchange rate to secure a $4.5 billion loan from it as budget support.

Bangladesh will continue to see high deficit in its current account balance till 2027, predicts the International Monetary Fund.

Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project may see a cost rise due to slow progress in power grid upgrade, possible changes in the loan repayment method amid the Russia-Ukraine war and the devaluation of the taka.

Without having a feasibility study done, the Election Commission sent a proposal for a development project worth Tk 8,711 crore for purchasing two lakh electronic voting machines and their management.

The second and final reactor of the Rooppur power plant will be installed today -- marking the most important development in the construction of the country’s first nuclear power-source.

Bangladesh is hoping to get $5.5 billion from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as budget support, which will help the country shore up its depleting foreign currency reserves.

The revenue collection growth decelerated to 12.63 per cent in Bangladesh in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, driven by the cost-of-living crisis at home and abroad, narrowing the fiscal space for the government, official figures showed.  

The International Monitory Fund has outlined wider reform measures, including bringing discipline to the financial sector and boosting revenue collection, for Bangladesh to avail the $4.5 billion loan.