Search results for: Economy

Vietnam's rice export up in 10 months

-- 2020-11-09 14:48:48

Vietnam reaped over 2.6 billion US dollars from exporting nearly 5.3 million tons of rice in the first 10 months of this year, up 8.2 per cent in value and down 4.0 per cent in volume year on year, ac...

72pc firms yet to receive stimulus: SANEM

-- 2020-11-07 20:07:13

Around 72 per cent of the firms surveyed are yet to receive any stimulus package, according to a survey of South Asian Network of Economic Modeling (SANEM). The major challenges include lack of packa...

WB to fund Bangladesh's western economic corridor project

FHM HUMAYAN KABIR 2020-11-07 09:52:32

The World Bank (WB) has agreed to finance the country's western economic corroder with a view to facilitating a smart connectivity there, an official said on Friday. The Washington-based lender wou...

Bangladesh among nations at bottom in greenfield FDI index

JASIM UDDIN HAROON 2020-11-07 09:44:21

Bangladesh has been ranked the third worst-performing country in the world in terms of attracting green-field foreign direct investment (FDI), according to a global ranking. "Greenfield" investment...

US Fed keeps interest rates near zero amid election uncertainty

-- 2020-11-06 17:31:16

The US Federal Reserve has kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record-low level of near zero amid uncertainty about the final result of the presidential election. "Economic activity and...

Japan to open English-speaking support office to lure foreign investments

Reuters 2020-11-06 12:09:18

Japan will open an English-speaking support office for foreign asset management firms seeking to do business in the country in January, Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday, as it aims to boost th...

World Bank-IMF annual meetings in 2021 postponed due to pandemic

-- 2020-11-06 11:57:12

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday announced that the planned annual meetings scheduled to take place in Morocco in October 2021 will be postponed by 12 months...

LDC graduation may cost Bangladesh $7.0b worth of exports a year

FHM Humayan Kabir 2020-11-06 09:40:09

Bangladesh is likely to lose US$7.0 billion worth of export earnings annually after graduation to a developing nation status in 2024, a government report estimates. The report said the country could...

Govt’s Tk 1.13t stimulus covers 8.0pc of total employment: CPD

FE Online Report 2020-11-05 18:28:42

Only 8.0 per cent of the country’s total employment has been covered by various stimulus packages worth Tk 1.13 trillion announced by the government to help offset the economic fallout from the...

‘Government working to build a vibrant blue economy’

-- 2020-11-05 17:38:53

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said the government has been working to build a vibrant blue economy by utilising marine resources for Bangladesh's economic prosperity. "We not only want to...

Bangladesh-Pakistan trade reaches $543.90m in FY20

FE ONLINE REPORT 2020-11-05 16:06:05

The bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Pakistan reached US$543.90 million in the fiscal year 2019-20. Of the total trade, Bangladesh’s export to Pakistan stood at US$50.54 million while the...

BoE ramps up stimulus by another 150b pounds

Reuters 2020-11-05 14:39:57

The Bank of England (BoE) increased its already huge bond-buying stimulus by a bigger-than-expected 150 billion pounds ($195 billion) as it sought to cushion Britain’s struggling economy against...

Bangladesh's own business climate index in place of WB's

JASIM UDDIN HAROON 2020-11-05 11:27:19

Bangladesh is mulling the introduction of its own index to assess the country's business environment as the World Bank (WB) has halted the publication of its flagship report 'Ease of Doing Business'....

Bangladesh’s inflation hits seven-year high

-- 2020-11-05 10:20:52

Bangladesh’s point-to-point general inflation rate has increased to 6.44 per cent in October, the highest in seven years, amid the coronavirus (COvid-19) pandemic. The country had the previous...

Policymakers urged to strategise recovery plan for newly vulnerable groups

FE REPORT 2020-11-05 09:47:23

Policymakers should focus more on newly-vulnerable population alongside the pre-existing marginalised groups while framing strategies for the pandemic recovery, experts have said. They also said many...

Forex reserves to reach $50b next year, finance minister says

-- 2020-11-04 18:11:11

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has hoped that the country’s foreign currency reserves will reach $50 billion by December 2021.  “Hopefully our foreign currency reserves will reac...

Philippines' total external trade declines 9.2pc in September

-- 2020-11-04 15:04:26

The Philippines' total external trade in goods declined 9.2 per cent in September from a year earlier to 14.14 billion US dollars, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has said. This was lower t...

BEZA seeks rational interest rate

FE REPORT 2020-11-04 09:43:15

Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) has sought rationalisation of the interest rate on loans it took out from a state-owned non-banking financial institution between 2015 and 2018. In a letter...

BB publishes Manual of Credit Guarantee Scheme for banks

-- 2020-11-03 21:09:32

Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday published 'Manual of Credit Guarantee Scheme' for the banks to follow in facilitating loans for cottage, micro and small enterprises (CMS) under the government-announced eco...

Vietnam's garment exports decline $24.8 billion in 10 months

-- 2020-11-03 14:10:47

Vietnam's total textile and garment export value in the first 10 months of this year declined 9.3 per cent year on year to nearly 24.8 billion US dollars, according to the General Statistics Office on...

Cambodia's rice export up 17pc in 10 months

-- 2020-11-02 13:34:07

Cambodia exported 536,305 metric tons of milled rice in the first 10 months of 2020, up 17 per cent over the same period last year, Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon said on Monday. China remained the...

Brands, retailers need to better buying practice for post-pandemic recovery

Monira Munni 2020-11-02 10:09:45

Brands and retailers must improve their purchasing practices in meeting the post-Covid demand and protecting supply chain workers during the pandemic recovery, according to a global report. The repor...

Economic reopening hardly serves the poor

FE REPORT 2020-11-02 09:42:38

The resumption of economic activities reduced the number of the crisis-caused "new poor" by only 1.1 percentage points to 21.7 per cent, according to a study. In the April study, the percentage of em...

Remittance inflow increases by 43pc in four months

-- 2020-11-01 21:38:02

Expatriate Bangladeshis sent $8,825 million remittances in the first four months of the current fiscal 2020-21, which is 43.24 per cent higher than the amount of the corresponding period of the previo...

US keen to help Bangladesh diversify its private sector

-- 2020-11-01 16:56:38

The United States has said it wants to help Bangladesh to diversify its private sector to move some of it away from the ready-made garment (RMG) industry into other high-value areas including the digi...

Local govt bodies given only 1.0pc of budgetary money

FE REPORT 2020-11-01 09:57:11

Speakers during a webinar on Saturday said local government institutions receive only around 1.0 per cent of the total fiscal budget. They highly depend on grants and central government transfers, al...

Dhaka wants IFC to cut lending rate

FE Report 2020-11-01 09:48:48

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has called upon the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending window of the World Bank Group, to reduce the rate of interest on its loan to...

Bangladesh's public spending in July-Sept quarter slowest in years

JASIM UDDIN HAROON 2020-11-01 09:36:08

The public expenditure increased in the first quarter (Q1) of the current fiscal year (FY2020-21) but at its slowest pace in many years. Officials blamed the Covid-19 pandemic for the decline in the...

Deposit-lending rate gap widens

SIDDIQUE ISLAM 2020-11-01 09:30:26

The interest rate spread in the country's banking system increased further in September 2020 as banks slashed rates on deposits more than those of lending. The weighted average spread between lending...

Bangladesh prepares to form pacts with 12 nations for retrieving black money

UNB 2020-10-31 19:46:19

The government is preparing to bring black money back to the country.  News agency UNB has learnt that the government is planning to ink taxation agreements with as many as 12 countries for allo...