Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
AL Policy Favouring Oligarchs Dampened Economy: The Awami League government favoured the super-rich who controlled capital and laundered the funds aboard, dampening the country's economy. Meanwhile, ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina had announced a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption, which is the "biggest mockery of the century", former central bank chief economist Birupaksha Paul has said. The professor of economics at the State University of New York at Cortland in the US discussed disproportionate economic growth, tampered data, the link between democracy and development, and many other issues in an interview with The Daily Star last week. (The Daily Star)
2.
Crawling Peg Hardly Works as Banks Duck Interbank Forex mkt: Commercial banks have changed strategy on foreign-currency management with its concentration on interbank swap and dollar-euro trades to avert shocks stemming from crawling- peg regime, thereby leaving the interbank forex market virtually derelict. As part of the changing approach in using foreign currencies in a more sustainable way in this critical period of time, banks having good stock of foreign trading currencies, the American greenback in particular, are averse to going for outright transaction in dollar on the interbank spot market where the ceiling of taka- dollar exchange rate is capped at Tk 120 under the crawling-peg mechanism prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). (The Financial Express)
3.
Bangladesh Skips India, Reroutes Global Textile Exports through Maldives: Bangladesh, the world's second-largest garment producer, has opted to bypass India and ship its textiles to global markets through the Maldives, hurting the cargo revenue prospects of India's airports and ports amid strained bilateral ties, reports Mint. The Indian business newspaper, citing three people aware of the development, reports that Bangladesh was rerouting its textile exports to the Maldives by sea and then dispatching cargoes by air to its global customers, including H&M and Zara. (The Daily Star)
4.
No Power Supply if Dues Not Settled by November 7: Adani to Bangladesh: After Adani cut power to Bangladesh over unpaid dues, they have now set a deadline of 7 November to switch off the connection if there is no clarity on the outstanding over the outstanding amount owed, says Times of India. Currently Bangladesh owes Adani almost $850 million. Adani had set a deadline of Oct 31 for the Bangladesh Power Development Board to clear the dues and provide a letter of credit (LC) of $170 million (around Rs 1,500 crore) to ensure security of payment. (The Business Standard)
5.
BSEC Ignored Own Report on RACE Playing with Investors' Assets: Bangladesh RACE Management PCL listed one of its core missions as "safeguarding our clients' wealth, big or small, through the dedicated use of sophisticated risk management tools." Since its inception in 2008, its leap was unmatched and soon it emerged as the country's largest private-sector mutual fund manager. But the growth was not fair all along. It faces allegations of flaws that suggest the funds did not live up to its announced mission of safeguarding clients' assets. (The Business Standard)
6.
Cyber Intelligence Detects Illegal Transactions on Dual Currency Credit Cards: The Bangladesh Cyber Security Intelligence (BCSI) has recently detected some illegal transactions made through dual currency credit cards without the knowledge of the cardholders. The state agency has found that the cybercriminals active on different social media platforms are harassing the cardholders of different banks by illegally using the data used in social media ad management platforms. (The Daily Star)
----Saju Sarker
BBN/SSR/AD