Ahsan Habib

New BB rules leave BRAC Bank as the only listed lender effectively eligible

Nineteen years ago, BNP finance minister M Saifur Rahman placed a national budget of Tk 69,740 crore for fiscal year 2006-07. Three governments have since come and gone, and BNP has now returned to power through a national election.

The country is not short of money for development projects. Instead, it is suffering from weak project planning, poor coordination and a culture that values expenditure over outcomes, according to AK Enamul Haque, director general (DG) of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

In an interview, Sayema Haque Bidisha, a professor at the economics department and also a former pro-vice-chancellor of Dhaka University,

Ahead of the fiscal year 2026-27 (FY27) national budget, the government faces mounting fiscal pressure amid high inflation and low investment at a time when the global geopolitical situation remains volatile, said Prof Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

Bangladesh’s next national budget should focus on strengthening economic resilience rather than increasing spending, said Zahid Hussain, former lead economist at the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

Climate budgeting in Bangladesh must become more knowledge-based and technically stronger to help the country access global climate financing more effectively, said Sharmind Neelormi, professor in the Department of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.

The government’s ambition to build a trillion-dollar economy by 2034 will remain out of reach without urgent reforms in banking, taxation, and business costs, as the country’s current economic structure is too weak to sustain the level of growth required, a leading economist said.

The move follows years of debate over the future of closed-end funds

Planning Division proposes Tk 3 lakh crore development budget for FY27

Tk 3 lakh crore borrowed during the interim government

Listed multinational companies (MNCs) in Bangladesh had another difficult year in 2025, with most failing to claw back profits eroded by inflation and shrinking consumer demand.

The government should require listed companies to hold at least one annual earnings call and publish financial reports on time to improve transparency and attract foreign investors, said Ruchir Desai, co-fund manager at Asia Frontier Capital, in an interview with The Daily Star.

Shoemaker Bata is strengthening its presence in Bangladesh, promising to “democratise” footwear by making quality, design and comfort accessible to all, not just a narrow segment of buyers, according to the group CEO.

As many factories scramble for diesel to keep generators running during load-shedding, production lines at Ha-Meem Group hum on without interruption.

The World Bank (WB) has described regulatory burdens in Bangladesh as a tax on time and investment, saying they are holding back investment compared with peer economies.

AB Bank has made a decisive strategic shift toward micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), moving away from its earlier concentration in large corporate lending, said Reazul Islam, acting managing director and CEO.

The US-Israel war on Iran is casting a long shadow over Bangladesh’s economy, threatening to slow growth, stoke inflation, deepen poverty, cut jobs, and raise debt burdens, according to the World Bank’s latest Bangladesh Development Update.

Twenty-nine shuttered companies post sharp gains after DSE names non-operational entities

The last fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) was hard for listed companies. During the period, firms saw their profitability fall to the lowest level since post-Covid,  squeezed by inflation that outpaced sales growth, rising borrowing costs, political upheaval and limited public spending.