Inflation to be controlled soon: Finance minister

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the country’s inflation will be controlled soon, the balance of payments situation will improve and the foreign exchange rate will be stable because of various measures taken by the government.

The finance minister told this replying to a query from lawmaker Momtaz Begum during a question and answer session in parliament on Monday.

Mustafa Kamal said the government has taken various measures and has been implementing those to control inflation, improve balance of payments situations and keep foreign exchange rate stable. The central banks has announced a contractionary monetary policy and increased policy rate from 6 per cent to 6.5 per cent to control currency supply, as well as announced a market-based exchange rate.

The finance minister also highlighted several measures taken by the government to improve the balance of payments situation and keep foreign exchange rate stable.

Replying to a query from lawmaker Samil Uddin Ahmed Shimul, posts and telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar told parliament that the existing mobile call rates have been fixed in 2018 after reviewing markets and analyzing socioeconomic perspectives and there is no plan to re-fix mobile call rates for now.

Currently, the highest mobile call rate is at Tk 2 a minute and the lowest at Tk 0.45 a minute, he added.