Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The central bank of Bangladesh is set to unveil the second half-yearly monetary policy aiming to keep price stable and create employment opportunities through an inclusive economic growth, officials said on Saturday.
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Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman will announce the half-yearly (January-June) monetary policy on Sunday to help productive sectors achieve such economic growth.
“We want to achieve inclusive economic growth through promoting financial inclusion by strengthening different credit programmes particularly in the productive sectors across the country,” a BB senior official told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said such credit programmes particularly in small and medium enterprises (SME) and agriculture sector will help create job opportunity, which will also help increase the purchasing power of the people.
“The new monetary policy was designed giving top priority to curb inflation and helping the productive sectors achieve maximum economic growth,” the central bank official added.
The country’s inflation as measured by consumers’ price index (CPI) moved slightly in the month of November last mainly because of increase in prices of food items.
The inflation rate moved up to 8.14 percent in November from 8.12 percent of the previous month on the annual average basis, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.
On the other hand, point-to-point inflation rate rose to 7.54 percent in November from 6.86 percent in October 2010 despite declining prices of non-food items.
“The existing accommodative monetary policy may continue for another six months to facilitate the country’s overall economic growth. But the central bank will remain vigilant on curbing inflation,” another BB official said.
BBN/SI/AD-29Jan11-8:40 pm (BST)
