The Bangladesh Bank is set to come out with a monetary policy for the first half of the 2016-17 financial year aimed at increasing private sector investment.
The governor of the central bank, Fazle Kabir, will announce the half-yearly policy at 11am on July 26, Bangladesh Bank’s Chief Economist Biru Paksha Paul told bdnews24.com on Tuesday.
It will be Kabir’s first after taking over as the governor in March.
Paul said, “We are working on the new monetary policy while prioritising ways to ensure quality investment in the private sector.”
“We plan to alleviate the sufferings of the private sectors’ investors through this policy.”
He said, “We’ll also keep in mind that inflation does not rise to an unbearable level.”
One of the key goals of the new monetary policy will be achieving the targeted GDP growth set in the current financial year’s budget, Paul added.
The government plans to achieve a 7.2 percent growth in the 2016-17 fiscal, which began on July 1, and keep the average inflation rate at 5.8 percent.
The monetary policy for last half of the 2015-16 fiscal (January-June) had set a growth rate in the private sector credit flow at 14.8 percent. The growth rate stood at 16.40 percent until May.
Central bank official says it may stay near or cross 17 percent in June.
The last half-yearly policy had also aimed to achieve 6.8 percent GDP growth rate and bring down the inflation rate to 6.2 percent.
In the 2015-16 fiscal, the overall inflation had dropped to 5.92 percent, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.
The BBS also said Bangladesh’s GDP (gross domestic product) grew to 7.05 percent between July and March (nine months) in 2015-16 fiscal.
Source: Bd news24
