The government is set to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund over the exchange rate issue that has been holding up the release of the fourth and fifth tranches of the $4.7 billion loan programme soon.
The next budget may be slightly smaller than the current fiscal year’s, but non-development spending is expected to rise by over 5 percent due to higher debt servicing costs, food subsidies, and a special allocation for bank reforms.
The government and the International Monetary Fund are set to meet again today for another round of negotiations over the release of the fourth and fifth tranches of a $4.7 billion loan programme.
Based on private electricity producers’ request, the Power Development Board (PDB) asked Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to nearly triple its import of furnace oil to around 500,000 tonnes a month so that the electricity demand in the summer can be met.
The fourth tranche of the instalment was deferred due to disagreements and now talks are going on to release two tranches at once.
Government officials will face death penalty or minimum life sentence if found guilty of causing the death of enforced disappearance victims, according to a draft ordinance unveiled yesterday.
As much as $900 million has been on hold since 2022 in the central bank's escrow account
The interim government may backtrack from its initial plan to set an ambitious GDP growth target of 6 percent for the next fiscal year amid the new economic reality and settle for 5.5 percent.
Heat exposure had severe economic consequences for Bangladesh last year, leading to an estimated income loss of $21 billion due to reduced labour capacity, according to the latest Lancet Countdown report.
The immediate past Awami League government’s failure to settle an international arbitration claim has left Bangladesh in a legal tangle in the US, leading to a surprise judicial order against two top officials of the interim government during their official visit to Washington last week.
A retired bureaucrat, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan has been tasked with heading three significant ministries for the economy: power, energy and mineral resources; road transport and bridges; and railways.
After the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund has now brought down Bangladesh’s growth forecast for this year as political uncertainty, industrial unrest and floods weigh heavily on economic activities.
The policy reforms being considered in Bangladesh will not only improve its business climate, but also increase foreign investment in the country, according to the top official of Excelerate Energy.
The government plans to sell some vegetables at subsidised prices for the low-income groups as part of a pilot project in the capital.
Two vessels anchored in Chattogram port last week to unload about 70,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas by misreporting the country of origin of the product, said the LPG Operators Association of Bangladesh (LOAB).
The Power Division has replied to Gautam Adani’s letter to Prof Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser to the interim government, saying the government will clear its dues within the shortest possible time.
The power supply situation has further deteriorated across the country as another power plant has completely shut and there is no sign of increasing generation in the immediate future.
Power cuts are getting more frequent as power generation has failed to keep up with the high demand caused by the rising mercury.
