Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The central bank of Bangladesh has started preparations to formulate its new monetary policy giving top priority to curbing inflation and helping the productive sectors aiming to achieve maximum economic growth.
“The central bank now working to release the new monetary policy for the remaining six months of this fiscal within the second week of the next month,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said.
He also said the BB has sought opinions from stakeholders including former finance advisers of the caretaker governments, former central bank governors and leading economists, experts, journalists and trade bodies for adding a new dimension to shaping up the monetary policy stance.
“There is no alternative to curbing inflationary pressure on the economy for achieving optimum economic growth,” the BB official said, adding that the central bank will finalise its new monetary policy in line with the stakeholders’ opinions.
“We’ve not yet taken decision on whether the next monetary policy would be a tightening one or an accommodative one,” he noted.
All indicators of the monetary policy and the exchange rate would be included in the new monetary policy statement, the central bank officials said.
The country’s inflation as measured by consumers’ price index (CPI) rose slightly in the month of November last mainly because of increase in prices of food items.
The inflation rate moved up to 8.14 per cent in November from 8.12 per cent of the previous month on the annual average basis, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.
On the other hand, the point-to-point inflation rate rose to 7.54 per cent in November from 6.86 per cent in October 2010 despite the declining prices of non-food items.
The first-ever monetary policy statement was formally published in January 2006 and the central bank of Bangladesh declared that it would publish it on half-yearly basis along with a half-yearly policy review.
BBN/SI/AD-23Jan11-2:21 pm (BST)
