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.
Growth of currency outside banks triggers concern
The volume of currency outside the banking system has grown significantly in recent months ahead of the national elections, raising suspicion about the use of such money. The currency outside the banking system rose by 14.06 per cent or Tk 156.41 billion to Tk 1268.83 billion until November last calendar year from Tk 1112.42 billion in the same month of 2016, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
Cash incentive rules flouted
Kuliarchar Sea Foods, a Cox's Bazar-based fish exporter, withdrew about Tk 19 crore in cash incentives from Mercantile Bank last year, violating government rules. Exporters cannot collect the incentive, meant to encourage exports, until the entire export earnings are credited by the importer to the exporter's bank, according to a Bangladesh Bank circular issued in December 2001.
S&P puts Bangladesh bank sector at higher risk category
Global credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s has put the Bangladesh’s banking sector at higher risk category amid rising non-performing loans, supervision gaps, overcapacity of banks and other irregularities in the sector surfaced in recent months. The S&P placed the country’s banking sector in the group ‘8’ on a scale of 1 (lowest risk) to 10 (highest risk) under its Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment report published on Monday.
‘Importing power from India may be better than production’
Electricity import from India is an economic option for Bangladesh as it is cheaper than all the other options including coal fired power plants, says a report. The report, published on Monday, said that importing of power will need less domestic power generation capacity. The money which was supposed to be invested in improving power generation capacity and fuel infrastructure development thus can be used for the development of non-energy sectors like agriculture, manufacturing or for consumption expenses.
Bangladesh’s imports jump by 28.13% in January
Bangladesh’s overall imports jumped by 28.13 per cent in January mainly due to higher import of food grains, capital machinery and fuel oils, officials said. The settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual import, in terms of value, rose to $4.98 billion in January 2018, from $3.89 billion in the same period of the previous calendar year, according to the central bank’s latest statistics.
AIIB okays $60m for Bangladesh's power project
The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is set to provide a $60 million loan for a power project in Bangladesh to take its exposure in the country to $285 million, which is 6.6 percent of its total portfolio. The amount will go towards building a 220-megawatt combined cycle power plant in Bhola, the total cost of which would be $271 million. Islamic Development Bank and local Infrastructure Development Company will provide the remaining funds.
7 banks face Tk 9417cr capital shortfall
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Monday informed parliament that seven of 57 the banks in the country –– four state-run and three private banks –– were facing shortfall of Tk 9417.42 crore in capital. Replying to a question from independent lawmaker Mohammad Abdul Matin, said that the deficit in capital of the four state-run banks stood Tk 7626.23 crore while the deficit of the private banks stood Tk 1791.20 till September, 2017.
Bangladesh Bank sells $18m to seven banks
The central bank of Bangladesh has sold US$18 million more to seven commercial banks to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market. “We’ve sold the foreign currency to the banks on Monday to at market rate settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports particularly fuel oil, food grains and capital machinery for power sector,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.
BBN/SSR/AD