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.

Overseas jobseekers face rough time
The 2019 has been rather a bumpy year for people seeking overseas employment when deportation from destination countries picked up speed. The outgoing year has not witnessed the opening of closed markets, rationalisation of migration costs, and dents in fraudulent practices in the process of sending workers and human trafficking.

Budget deficit goes over 5pc boundary

Budget deficit, which is when spending exceeds revenue, is set to cross the sensible perimeter of 5 percent of GDP in fiscal 2018-19 for the first time in 12 years on the back of ebbing collections of the tax administrator. Revenue collection grew 10.67 percent last fiscal year against the target of about 46 percent, according to provisional data of the National Board of Revenue. But, data from the Comptroller and Auditor General office shows that the growth was less than 10 percent.

Bangladesh’s remittance inflow to rise 18% in 2019

The flow of inward remittance is set to jump more than 18 per cent or US$2.80 billion in the outgoing calendar year 2019 as the government has provided incentive to the beneficiaries against inward remittance. Bankers said depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar has also jacked the inflow of remittances up in the recent months.

PM against giving utility supply to new industries outside EZs

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed the authorities concerned to stop providing in phases power, gas and other utility connections to new industries to be set up outside the economic zones to encourage planned industrialisation in the country. The prime minister gave the directive at a recent meeting where a presentation was given on the master plan prepared for the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN) at Mirsharai and Sitakundu upazilas in Chattogram and Sonagazi upazila in Feni by the Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority.

Weekly Review: Stocks see losing streak for fourth straight weeks

Bangladesh’s stocks maintained a losing streak continued for the fourth straight weeks on the bourses that ended Thursday as worried investors continued their selling binge on large-cap issues. Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 38 points or 0.85 per cent to settle at 4,418. The DSEX has lost a cumulative 312 points in the past four straight weeks while it shed 1,532 points since January 24, this year, when the index peaked at 5,950.

Loan write-offs rocket
Loans written off by banks escalated 42.66 percent year-on-year to Tk 1,640 crore in the first nine months of the year as lenders, awash with default loans, endeavoured to clean up their balance sheets. The upward trend of written-off loans will help lenders paint a rosy picture of their health only for the time being, said Zahid Hussain, a former lead economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

Government to review wage structure of 11 sectors

The labour ministry has moved to review the wages of workers employed at 11 industrial sectors on a priority basis as their wage structures have not been reviewed in over five years. As per the labour law of Bangladesh, the minimum wages for a sector must be reviewed every five years.

DSE holds director election today

The election to the post of two shareholder-directors of prime bourse Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will be held on Sunday. The election has been due as two directors are going to retire this year in line with the demutualization scheme as per DSE’s election board schedule.

BBN/SSR/AD