Mamun Rashid

The finance minister on Thursday placed the budget for fiscal year 2024-25, which is 4.6 percent bigger than the ongoing one. The increase is much lower than the average inflation seen in the last few years, reflecting the monetary constraints the government is facing as well as some of the realities of the crisis which commands a certain extent of belt-tightening

Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, the former finance minister of Bangladesh, and more importantly, one of the architects of Bangladesh's economic development, left an undeniable legacy upon his passing, more than two years ago.

Bangladesh’s economy is struggling with higher inflation, depletion of foreign exchange reserves, pressure on the exchange rate, shrinking capital inflows, and pressure on the budget.

Thanks to HSBC Bangladesh, I was privy to a presentation on Asia economic outlook with a special focus on Bangladesh.

This is exactly the question I came across from the investment community in the US, India, and Singapore in the last one month or so. They asked where the exchange rate may settle down and the local currency borrowing rate may go. If they invest in Bangladesh, will they be able to take back their return on investments timely and easily?

How do you define a good budget? Should it be all-inclusive? Should it be too large? Or should it only focus on the possible future of the nation and allocate more to education and healthcare?

Mirza Aziz, a strong figure in Bangladesh’s bureaucracy, has made significant contributions to the nation’s economic development

As Bangladesh concluded 2023, it faced a series of macroeconomic challenges, including soaring inflation, dwindling foreign currency reserves, a weakened taka against the US dollar, slowing exports, lower-than-expected remittance inflows, and a troubled banking sector.

The most recent bank merger proposal in Bangladesh reflects a pressing need for action due to Bangladesh Bank's determination to instill essential discipline and oversight in the financial sector, which is plagued by widespread irregularities.

The establishment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in India was critically acclaimed as a success story since it led to impressive changes in the Indian banking system and set a standard for debt recovery, credit culture, and the entire financial system.

Just a few days ago, we celebrated the 89th birthday of our country’s noted economist and public policy champion Professor Rehman Sobhan. Prof Sobhan is better known as one of the authors of the two-nation theory, which ultimately helped us form the philosophical base of an independent Banglades

All stakeholders, including the citizenry, have for years been warning about the deteriorating health of Bangladesh's banking sector. Hard data such as those on the prevalence of default loans have also been indicating the same. .A recent Bangladesh Bank report is the latest to reaffirm

All of our important stakeholders, including those in the government, are now talking about reforms. I was very intrigued when the state minister for ICT on the second day of his joining the new cabinet asked me who could our Nandan Nilekani be?

Bangladesh stands at a critical juncture in its developmental journey, with infrastructure development being a cornerstone of its economic growth agenda.

Banking, the lifeblood of any economy, faces unique challenges in Bangladesh. A high percentage of non-performing loans (NPLS), inadequate capital, and an overreliance on bank financing are just a few of the many obstacles impeding advancement.

Bangladesh Bank has announced a new plan to reduce non-performing loans (NPL) to less than 8 percent by June 2026. The central bank aims to bring down the NPL of state-owned commercial banks to 10 percent and private banks below 5 percent. As we know, many such initiatives have been introduced earlier and they failed to show desired results.

Reforming the Bangladesh banking sector is long overdue considering the ongoing struggles, such as liquidity issues, poor resource management, capital crises, and underperforming loans and their potential ripple effect on the economy. Forced bank mergers have been the talk of the town in recent times. But we have seen most of the "known to be good banks" quite confused and concerned about the possible measures.

The world's economic landscape is changing, shifting influence from the West to the East. In this transformation, Bangladesh, marked by a tech-savvy youth population is on the path of emerging as a promising hub for startups.

In 2023, Bangladesh's capital market faced a challenging environment characterised by internal constraints and external difficulties. It proved to be a tumultuous year for the stock business marked by unprecedented lows in average turnover and foreign investments, not seen since the collapse in 2010.

Post-pandemic, Bangladesh recovered reasonably quickly and was seeing encouraging signs that the economy was well poised to return to the pre-Covid growth path. However, a combination of global inflationary pressure and supply disruptions owing to the Russia-Ukraine War, a rising US dollar, increasing international inflation rates, and the emergence of recessionary fears in advanced economies coupled with a few not-so-thoughtful domestic policy measures created a hostile economic environment for us.