Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The BBN (Bangladesh Business News) has prepared the morning business round up compiling reports, published by different newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh.
Inflation eases in Dec
Inflation came down to 5.83 percent in December, from 5.91 percent a month ago, riding on a decline in non-food prices, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday released the data for November and December. In December food inflation increased slightly but as non-food inflation decreased, the overall inflation fell.
One km road to cost Tk 1.46b
The government has approved a one-kilometre road-widening project to be developed in the capital at an estimated cost of Tk 1.46 billion. The cost is much higher than the average expenditure of similar other projects in the city, a senior official at the Planning Commission told the FE, requesting anonymity.
Banks mired in bad loans, scams
The country’s banking sector passed yet another turbulent year marred by growing bad loans and unstoppable scams caused by hostile takeover of private banks and exposure of two new private banks to almost bankruptcy. The swelling bad loans have been described by experts as chronic problem while they identified this takeover of banks as ‘hijack’ and a new addition to the scam-prone banking sector in the absence of proper monitoring.
CAB: Living costs in Dhaka rose by 8.44% in 2017
The cost of living in Dhaka rose by 8.44% on average last year, which was higher compared to the year before, according to a report by the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB). CAB President Ghulam Rahman unveiled the report titled “Annual Inflation of 2017” at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity on Tuesday.
BB to issue fresh directives for implementing ALM guidelines
Commercial banks are expected to get a latest directive for implementing the asset-liability management (ALM) guidelines strictly to duck possible liquidity pressure in an emerging lopsided-market scenario. Officials said the dos from the central bank could come at a bankers' meeting convened at the Bangladesh Bank headquarters in Dhaka for today (Wednesday), incidentally in the wake of some major problems facing the banking sector.
Loan write-offs soar
Banks wrote off Tk 452 crore in the three months to June last year, up by over 18 times from Tk 24.76 crore in the previous three months. Of the 12 banks that took the facility to clean up their balance sheets, City Bank topped the chart with Tk 207 crore followed by Dutch-Bangla Bank's Tk 108 crore and Eastern Bank's Tk 101 crore, according to Bangladesh Bank data released recently.
Energy div limps with dev projects
Energy Division is limping with its development projects under different funding schemes as it made 7.42 per cent progress in the project implementation in the first five months of the financial year 2017-18. Three state-run enterprises under the energy division spent Tk 331.30 crore until November 30 against an allocation of Tk 4,462.36 crore for the current financial year, according to an energy division report on the project implementation progress.
Government approves use of bio-ethanol as vehicle fuel
The government has decided to allow the use of bio-ethanol as vehicle fuel by mixing it with petrol and octane at a 5% ratio. The initiative, first ever in Bangladesh, was taken to reduce the use of conventional fuel oil and carbon emission, with aims to mitigate environmental pollution across the country.
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