Rejaul Karim Byron

Inflation rose for the second consecutive month in September driven by an increase in the price of both food and non-food items, official figures showed yesterday.

Students, rickshaw-pullers and labourers faced the worst financial hardship during pandemic whereas government employees and teachers were least impacted by it, reported Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Bangladesh may seek more than $2.5 billion from World Bank in budgetary support, project financing and aid as it has to implement a major portion of the country’s gigantic stimulus package to revive the economy.

The government has undertaken a programme worth $550 million with an aim to procure and distribute coronavirus vaccines.

The government has undertaken a programme worth $550 million with an aim to procure and distribute coronavirus vaccines.

The government is aiming to clock more than 8 per cent economic growth on average during the Eight Five-Year Plan period as it hopes that the impacts of the devastating coronavirus pandemic would fade in the second half of the current fiscal year.

A South Korean joint venture is likely to be engaged in turning the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway into an expressway under a public private partnership (PPP) initiative.

Implementation of government’s stimulus package, announced to absorb the economic shock from the coronavirus pandemic, saw a mixed progress as around 26 percent of the massive Tk 111,141-crore scheme was disbursed in four months till July.

Around 68 percent of the people who had to stop working in urban areas of Dhaka and Chattogram due to the pandemic have lost their jobs, according to a World Bank report.

Despite some loopholes, the implementation of an electronic system for public procurement, replacing paper-based lengthy process, has been a boon for Bangladesh as it is saving millions of dollars and reducing time in the bidding process, the World Bank said.

Bidders need to give bribes in the form of financial benefits, arrange trips and host dinners for government officials to win public procurement contracts, says a World Bank report.

The planning ministry has expressed dissatisfaction over a decision to put on hold implementation of low-priority projects.

With development projects losing steam for the ongoing pandemic and several months of shutdown, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) hopes to get four back on track by getting loan agreements signed with China this fiscal year.

The government has not discarded its plan to offload shares of several state-run banks, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

Banks managed to post 8.95 per cent credit growth in the last fiscal year despite a steep fall in business in the last quarter owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

The government yesterday gave its nod to a proposal to set up the country’s first ever waste-based power plant.

Development expenditure dropped 10.18 per cent year-on-year to Tk 5,097.79 crore in August as activities are yet to pick up because of the lingering coronavirus pandemic.

Government projects tend to witness increases in implementation costs for a myriad of reasons, including changes in design and land prices and tendering delays.

Bangladesh might have already started rebounding from the persisting coronavirus pandemic as the Asian Development Bank said the economy would see a gradual recovery in the first two quarters of the fiscal year.

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft law allowing the aviation ministry to keep its control over Biman, even though the national flag carrier was turned into a public limited company in 2007 to make it profitable.