Reporter, The Daily Star
The government should take specific steps through the upcoming national budget for 2022-23 to roll out a universal pension scheme, said an economist.
The government is yet to take any comprehensive corrective measures to tackle macroeconomic challenges as it has not properly assessed the gravity of the situation in the current fiscal year, an economist said.
The government is planning to undertake a Tk 303-crore project to increase milk, meat and egg production in char areas under Dhaka division by at least 15 per cent to 20 per cent and subsequently improve living standards.
The government is far away from achieving the major targets set for the current fiscal year when the national budget was unveiled in June last year, owing to its failures to assess the global scenario before fixing the goals, experts said.
The government plans to increase its development spending slightly in the upcoming fiscal year due to the narrow fiscal space, the dollar crisis, the conditions attached to the IMF’s loan programme, and higher expenses on subsidies and interest payments.
Inflation in Bangladesh fell slightly to 9.24 per cent in April, driven by a decline in food prices, although it still remains at an elevated level compared to historic trends, official figures showed yesterday.
A project of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) aimed at developing its industrial estate in Barishal and improving infrastructure there has again missed the deadline for completion owing to sluggish implementation, official documents showed.
A project for expanding artificial reproduction and implementing embryo transfer technology in livestock farming has been delayed once again due to slow implementation.
The compensation for worker deaths due to factory accidents in Bangladesh is still lower than the per capita income of its nationals, according to the leader of a workers’ rights body.
A single company can’t have more than one representative director in the board of a non-bank financial institution (NBFI), said the Bangladesh Bank yesterday.
Female labour force participation in rural areas has increased significantly in Bangladesh thanks to women’s growing involvement in the agriculture sector and urban-rural migration brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic.
The first nine months of the current fiscal year of 2022-23 saw the lowest implementation rate of the annual development programme (ADP) in at least the last 10 years, with only 41.65 per cent of the total outlay being spent till March, showed official figures.
With Eid-ul-Fitr just around the corner, streets all over Bangladesh are bustling with people who are either out shopping for gifts or groceries as well as those travelling home for the holiday.
Yesterday’s blaze at Dhaka New Super Market has severely affected trade of nearby markets, that too with just a week to go before Eid-ul-Fitr.
An increasing number of families are becoming connected with the formal financial system by depositing and borrowing money, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Monthly average household income and expenditure in Bangladesh doubled in the last six years and nearly tripled in 12 years, official figures showed yesterday.
The poverty rate in Bangladesh has declined to 18.7 per cent and the extreme poverty rate stood at 5.6 per cent, according to the latest data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The government plans to take up a Tk 2,995-crore project for enhancing its technical and administrative capacity to manage the environment in a sustainable manner across the country.
A project of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) to build 34 buffer warehouses has once again failed to meet its deadline and become costlier due to slow implementation.
The commerce ministry’s Export Competitiveness for Jobs (EC4J) project, which aims to expand Bangladesh’s export basket, has once again failed to meet its deadline and become costlier due to slow implementation.
Although wage growth in Bangladesh has been slowly climbing since July last year, it has still remained below inflation for the 14th month consecutively, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Inflation in Bangladesh jumped to a seven-month high of 9.33 per cent in March as food prices rose and the adjustment of oil, gas, and electricity prices took hold, highlighting the pains low-income households are going through.
Although the government has from time-to-time laid emphasis on the timely completion of projects, the agriculture ministry will seek a third extension for one on fruit production, taking the completion time to 10 years from an initial five years.
Masudur Rahman completed his post-graduation in economics from Sirajganj Government College last year.
The agriculture ministry is planning to take up a Tk 7,214 crore project to promote crop diversification and ensure food safety, aiming to gradually reduce the country’s dependency on imports.
The average monthly food expense for a four-member household in Dhaka has increased by up to 51 per cent over the past four years due to persisting high inflation, according to a study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Although Bangladesh has almost achieved self-sufficiency in rice production, its dependence on the international market remains high for food items with import cost rising two and a half times to Tk 80,800 crore from a decade ago.
The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries yesterday started selling milk, eggs and meat at “affordable prices” across 20 locations inside Dhaka in a bid to stabilise the market during Ramadan.
Ensuring infrastructure facilities and logistics support in Bangladesh are the main challenges for the country to flourish in global trade, according to a top official of a global logistics company.
The import cost of pulses in Bangladesh is on the rise due to increased consumption, inadequate domestic production and higher prices in the international markets.
It was once seen that only low-income and uneducated groups of people were involved with agro-farming in Bangladesh but now, the situation has changed radically.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) last week finally made public its estimate of the amount of Boro season paddy produced in the country last year, which sadly will come to little effect as farmers will be harvesting this year’s crops within a month or so.
Nearly a year ago when President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many had thought that the war would end soon
Commitments and disbursements of foreign assistance for development projects in Bangladesh fell in the July-January period of the current fiscal year, which may deepen the pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
More than two and a half years ago, the government took a Tk 1,500 crore safety net programme for the workers who lost their jobs owing to the devastating impact of Covid-19.
Earnings from jute exports from Bangladesh slumped for the second consecutive year in July-January, raising concerns for the promising industry, one of the few sectors for which raw materials are locally available.
The 27th edition of the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF), which ends today at its new venue in Dhaka’s Purbachal, may have seen a higher turnout but overall sales were lower compared to when the monthlong event was held in Agargaon, according to participants.
Bangladesh made a major step towards a universal pension scheme when parliament passed the Universal Pension Management Bill-2022 on January 24 with a view to bringing the country’s growing elderly population under a social security system.
Apart from export and remittance earnings, the government has placed importance on securing more foreign funding in the current fiscal year to shield the country’s foreign currency reserves from depletion.
Scaling up public food distribution programmes for the poor and the vulnerable is the need of the hour -- given the cost of living crisis. But the government seems to be shying away from stepping up to this task.
The government plans to take up a large-scale sanitation and waste-management project, which will focus on 25 municipalities to ensure a safe, sustainable, and inclusive sanitation system.
Although the overall length of a road linking the Matarbari coal-based power plant in Maheshkhali upazila to Cox’s Bazar town has reduced, the construction cost is set to increase by more 70 per cent from the initial estimate owing to poor feasibility studies.
The government has a plan to undertake a Tk 5,651-crore project to construct a 15.31km elevated road in the haor region of Kishoreganj to establish the district’s direct road links with Dhaka, Sylhet and other districts.
Bangladesh sent the highest number of migrant workers in its history in 2022 thanks to a surge in demand for labourers in the Middle Eastern countries but remittance receipts did not go up proportionately.
Constructing Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel under the Karnaphuli river in Chattogram is set to turn costlier apparently for poor feasibility studies as the need for new components have arisen alongside adjustments to the rise in the price of the US dollar.
The financial account of the balance of payments (BoP) turned negative in the first five months of the current fiscal year, highlighting the challenges Bangladesh is facing in protecting its foreign currency reserves from depletion as funds outflows exceeded inflows.
A retired secondary school teacher in Satkhira not entitled to pensions had planned to use a portion of other service benefits to purchase savings certificates to meet some of his family expenses with the interest income.
Although the inflation rate in Bangladesh has maintained a downward trend for the past four months, it is still high enough to affect those living in the middle-income category and below, experts say.
The government should take specific steps through the upcoming national budget for 2022-23 to roll out a universal pension scheme, said an economist.
The government is yet to take any comprehensive corrective measures to tackle macroeconomic challenges as it has not properly assessed the gravity of the situation in the current fiscal year, an economist said.
The government is planning to undertake a Tk 303-crore project to increase milk, meat and egg production in char areas under Dhaka division by at least 15 per cent to 20 per cent and subsequently improve living standards.
The government is far away from achieving the major targets set for the current fiscal year when the national budget was unveiled in June last year, owing to its failures to assess the global scenario before fixing the goals, experts said.
The government plans to increase its development spending slightly in the upcoming fiscal year due to the narrow fiscal space, the dollar crisis, the conditions attached to the IMF’s loan programme, and higher expenses on subsidies and interest payments.
Inflation in Bangladesh fell slightly to 9.24 per cent in April, driven by a decline in food prices, although it still remains at an elevated level compared to historic trends, official figures showed yesterday.
A project of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) aimed at developing its industrial estate in Barishal and improving infrastructure there has again missed the deadline for completion owing to sluggish implementation, official documents showed.
A project for expanding artificial reproduction and implementing embryo transfer technology in livestock farming has been delayed once again due to slow implementation.
The compensation for worker deaths due to factory accidents in Bangladesh is still lower than the per capita income of its nationals, according to the leader of a workers’ rights body.
A single company can’t have more than one representative director in the board of a non-bank financial institution (NBFI), said the Bangladesh Bank yesterday.