BB to unveil ‘cautious’ monetary policy Tuesday

Last updated: July 30, 2018

Bangladesh Bank Headquarters

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank is set to unveil its first-half (H1) yearly monetary policy on Tuesday aiming to achieve maximum economic growth through boosting investment particularly in productive sectors.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Fazle Kabir will announce the monetary policy statement (MPS) at 11 am on the day for the July-December of the fiscal year (FY) 2018-19 to help real sectors for achieving sustainable economic growth with curbing inflation.

The central bank has formulated the growth supportive MPS giving top priority to facilitate investment through increasing credit flow particularly in the real economic sectors, according to officials.

They also said the central bank will facilitate credit flow to the productive sectors for achieving 7.8 per cent GDP (gross domestic product) growth by the end of this fiscal.

Existing liquidity situation, movement of stock market and exchange rate position will be included in the MPS, they added.

“We’ll take cautions policy stance as upward trend of inflationary pressures on the economy,” a BB senior official told the BBN in Dhaka.

He also said the cautions monetary policy stance will help curbing rising trend of inflation.

The inflation rose to 5.78 per cent in the FY 18 on annual average basis from 5.44 per cent a year before, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.

Food inflation stood at 7.13 per cent in the FY 18 as compared to 6.02 per cent in the previous fiscal.

“We’ve prepared the next MPS considering the upward trend in prices of petroleum products in the global market, possible rising trend of inflation and ensuring proper use of credit,” the central banker explained.

The government had set the inflation target at 5.6 per cent for the FY 19.

In the next MPS, the central bank will also put emphasis on boosting SMEs and agriculture loans along with micro-credit to create employment opportunities across the country, according to the BB officer.

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