4 important decisions on economy, bank commission to be formed

The interim government has taken four important decisions to stabilise and reform the financial sector and tackle soaring inflation rate in the country.

The decisions include formation of a banking commission for sustainable reforms in the banking sector.

Besides this, a blueprint on the overall situation and reforms of the financial sector will be prepared and published within 100 days of the formation of the interim government.

The decisions were taken in a meeting of Bangladesh Bank governor Ahsan H Mansur with chief adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus today, Sunday, said a press release sent from the office of the chief adviser.

It said that the meeting decided that the existing band in the case of interbank foreign exchange transactions has been increased from 1 per cent to 2.5 per cent with the view to increase liquidity in the foreign exchange market.

According to the crawling peg system of fixing the foreign exchange rate, currently the intermediate price of the dollar is Tk 117, which may increase up to Tk 118. But as a result of the new decision, the price of the dollar can rise up to Tk 120.

It was hoped that the decision will help liquidity in the interbank foreign exchange market to return very soon and the volume of exchange will also increase rapidly.

It was said in the meeting that the inflation rate has to be brought down through proper management of demand and supply. For this, the meeting insisted on retaining the contractionary monetary policy and at the same time improvement in the supply system.

The meeting was told that taking appropriate decisions has started but the people will have to wait for a few more days to get rid of the pressure of inflation.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the overall inflation rate in the country has risen to 11.66 per cent in July which was 9.72 per cent in June.

On the other hand, the food inflation rate in July has soared to 14 per cent, the highest since April 2011. The rate was 14.36 per cent then.

Speaking about reforming the banking sector, the chief adviser and the governor had a detailed meeting about the condition of the sector.

It was decided from the meeting that a baking commission will be formed soon for making the reforms in the sector sustainable.

Apart from this, a blueprint on the overall situation and reforms of the financial sector will be prepared and published within 100 days of the formation of the interim government.