Rejaul Karim Byron

Inflation bucked its runaway trend in July, becoming the third data point this month after remittance and import to provide some relief to a government on its toes about the direction the economy was taking.

Bangladesh’s regional trade can increase by a staggering 93 percent thanks to the $1.4 billion project the World Bank has set in motion to accelerate trade and transport connectivity in Eastern South Asia -- a development that can cushion the country from the anticipated export losses from LDC graduation.

Revenue collection grew 15.51 per cent year-on-year to Tk 300,179 crore in the just-concluded fiscal year of 2021-22, according to the provisional data of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The government is finally moving ahead with a project to roll out fifth-generation (5G) mobile internet services through state-run network provider Teletalk, according to officials of the planning ministry.

The government is expecting $2.5-3 billion by June next year from multilateral lenders other than the International Monetary Fund to help the Bangladesh economy weather the storm caused by the Ukraine war.

Bangladesh’s use of foreign assistance reached a new record high of $10 billion in fiscal year 2021-22, primarily behind vaccinations, one-time budget support, economic recovery from the pandemic and implementation of mega projects.

Bangladesh’s foreign loan servicing burden will peak in fiscal 2029-30 with repayment of $5.15 billion, which experts deem to be very much within the safe territory -- quelling fears that the country might become the next emerging economy after Sri Lanka and Pakistan to run into external debt distress.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has sent in a formal request to the IMF for a $4.5 billion loan, putting to bed the speculations on whether the country would be seeking the support from the Washington-based multilateral lender at all.

Bangladesh Bank plans to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 10 commercial banks for taking various steps on a pilot basis, including periodically publishing their lists of defaulters, in a bid to reduce their default loans. 

The International Monetary Fund is expecting a formal request for a loan from Bangladesh soon to provide a buffer to the delicate foreign currency reserves amid global economic volatility even though the government remains in two minds about it.

The government is stalling on taking the $4.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to ease the pressure on the foreign currency reserves after seeing the conditions that would be attached.

Inflation raced to a nine-year high of 7.56 percent in June, in a development that lays bare the extent of the cost of living crisis gripping the low-income and middle-class people in Bangladesh thanks to a war taking place some 5,800 kilometres away in Ukraine.

With the partial launch of the country’s first ever metro rail only five months away, the project cost is set to rise by more than half, and the deadline is also going to be extended by a year and half.

In face of growing pressure on the country’s economy, the government issued strict directives to field-level administration to practise austerity while spending from the budget allocation.

People are not getting the maximum benefit from the 761 services the government have digitalised for slow servers and poor internet speed, according to a government evaluation.

A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is set to arrive in Dhaka tomorrow on a nine-day trip to discuss the government’s request for a $4.5 billion loan in the form of budgetary support.

The government in Bangladesh has already begun enforcing energy and power rationing to contain the surging import cost of gas and fuel oil and turned to austerity measures to save US dollars. 

A large number of households now receive warnings via SMS before a disaster, found a survey.

The digitalisation of 66 percent of the services offered by six ministries/divisions has saved both time and money of the ordinary people and also ensured service delivery, found a recent study by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division.

In the end, it was not just lip service. Yesterday, on the first working day of the new fiscal year, the government rolled out a cocktail of austerity measures for its own administration that can conserve about Tk 60,000 crore -- for now.