Chittagong port of Bangladesh
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.
Trade gap soars to $17b, current account deficit $9b in 11 months
Country’s trade deficit soared by 84 per cent to $17.2 billion in the July-May period of the just concluded fiscal year (2017-2018) as import payments surged past $50 billion in the 11 months. Current account balance also reached negative $9.3 billion in the first 11 months of FY18, according to the latest Bangladesh Bank data.
11 listed firms remain traceless
Eleven companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange have made off with at least Tk 42.19 crore of investors' money, in what can be described as a stunning instance of swindling. Neither the capital market regulator nor the DSE has taken any step to trace the companies and retrieve the money.
Process on to make BPC a public co
State minister for power, energy and mineral resources on Tuesday said his ministry is working on drawing the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) into the capital market. Nasrul Hamid disclosed this while speaking as the chief guest at the Bangladesh-Singapore Business Forum.
Seminar: Ensure maximum security for online transactions
Citing an increase in the online payments and use of credit, debit and electronic gift cards, financial security experts have called for introducing new measures to ensure maximum security for online transactions. They made these recommendations on Tuesday at a seminar on “Payments, Identity and Security” jointly organized by payment and identity security company Entrust DataCard and their local representative LEADS Corporation Ltd at a hotel in Dhaka.
Bangladesh’s stock turnover surpasses BDT 10b-mark
Bangladesh’s stocks ended higher on Tuesday with turnover hitting nearly eight months high as investors put fresh stakes on stocks. Brokers said low interest rates on bank deposits and dividend expectation of June-ending companies prompted investors to take position in stocks, taking the turnover nearly eight months high.
BB faces tough task to lower inflation after spike
The central bank may face a challenge to bring down the average annual inflation to 5.6 per cent in the current fiscal year (FY) after it exceeded the target in the last fiscal. The average annual inflation exceeded the government target of 5.5 per cent in FY 2017-18 mainly due to higher prices of food grains, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials.
Leading firms stand by SMEs
Nine leading companies from different sectors joined hands on Monday to launch a platform to provide special services to entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises. The “ONE” platform will comprise DHL Express Bangladesh, Grameenphone, Eastern Bank Ltd, The Daily Star, Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd, Hatil, Fair Distribution Ltd (distributor of Samsung), Ispahani Group and TVS Motor Company.
SME loans dip by 10pc in Q1 as liquidity crisis bites
SME loan disbursement by banks and non-bank financial institutions declined by 10.34 per cent or Tk 4,201 crore in the first three months (January-March) of the year 2018 compared with that in the same period of the previous year. As per a recently released central bank report, banks and NBFIs disbursed Tk 36,419.55 crore in loans to the SME sector in the first quarter of the year 2018, while the figure was Tk 40,620.54 crore in the same quarter last year.
BBN/SSR/AD