If there is one indicator that epitomises the government’s mismanagement of the economy in recent times, it is inflation -- which raced to an 11-year high of 9.94 percent in May.
Self-contradictory is what best describes Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s fifth budget, and the last of the Awami League-led government’s current term.
In 2019, when AHM Mustafa Kamal took charge as the finance minister, the Bangladesh economy was taxing for take-off for its long-haul flight to the developed country club.
This year was always supposed to be a celebration of Bangladesh’s economic progress with the opening of Padma bridge and Dhaka metro rail and 100 percent electrification.
Ever since Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s economic turmoil, Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves has become a part of public discourse. So much so that despite having an official figure from the central bank every week, people are speculating.
Inflation raced to a nine-year high of 7.56 percent in June, in a development that lays bare the extent of the cost of living crisis gripping the low-income and middle-class people in Bangladesh thanks to a war taking place some 5,800 kilometres away in Ukraine.
What is the purpose of the national budget? In essence, it is to allocate scarce resources.
Wishful thinking -- is what best describes the maiden tax amnesty campaign the government is planning to lure money back home next fiscal year.
When thinking outside the box was needed, the government opted for the tried-and-tested method.
Wishy-washy -- is what best describes the government’s stance on scaling up its narrow revenue base, which is posing to become the Achilles’ heel to Bangladesh’s growth aspirations.
Strange times are these in which we live when record subsidy allocation may still come short of what is needed.
The government finally raised its guard against the dwindling dollar reserves, putting its employees’ foreign tours on hold and deferring projects that require much imports.
There are bright sparks in all corners of the economy, according to the provisional GDP figures for fiscal 2021-22, which do not show a hint of a pandemic hangover when others are still plodding along.
When Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina defiantly announced in 2012 that the Padma bridge would be built after the World Bank pulled out of the project, her gumption was not irrational.
Can a parliamentary standing committee recommend a project directly to the prime minister without any due diligence? The law explicitly does not permit it.
When Bangladesh agreed to provide $250 million to Sri Lanka last year, little did it think that it would become a side character in the horror show that is unfolding in the island nation.
What does one do when one sees wrongdoing taking place in front of one’s very eyes? For most, the natural response would be to stop it in its tracks.
Grey area. The place between black and white -- and that is where life happens. This begs the question: shouldn’t the government’s communication be clear and concise for events that might fall in the grey area?
A hidden gem is what British banking giant HSBC dubbed Bangladesh's bourse earlier last month.
Often touted as the backbone of an economy, Bangladesh has never wholeheartedly nurtured the cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises sector like the governments around the world, particularly those of China, India, the UK, the US.
Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs -- suggests the famous Greek storyteller Aesop. And looking at Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s proposed tax measures for the mobile financial services operators for the incoming fiscal year, one cannot help but recall the famous fable.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s move on Sunday to fix the broadband prices brings to mind an oft-used quote by celebrated French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: A goal without a plan is nothing but a wish.
He set off to save lives and livelihoods in his third budget as the finance minister and his second amid the global coronavirus pandemic, and along the way, went astray.
We are sailing through the most extraordinary times in living memory, with every facet of what we knew as normal life upended. So, one would expect the man heading the Bangladesh arm of a multinational behemoth like Unilever to be fidgety.
Any finance minister delivering a national budget wants, ideally, to project three qualities: calm, authority and very slight dullness.
It seems the universe keeps conspiring against Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal. When it is his moment to shine, some misfortune strikes. Last year, it was dengue, and this year, it is the raging coronavirus that has left him at the centre of what could possibly be Bangladesh’s most acute economic -- and human -- crisis yet.
Optimism is a disease, the polemical British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie once said, and talking with Manmohan Parkash, the country director of the Asian Development Bank, one can’t help but catch that disease.
Age is the price of wisdom, it is often said. And an audience with the immediate past finance minister, AMA Muhith, calls to mind that saying.
Halfway through an interview at the Planning Commission, Planning Minister MA Mannan is asked about the logic behind the inordinate number of projects that are in implementation at any given moment.
The man with the plan, is the impression one walks away with after an audience with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal. Later, one is invariably met with the question: was he being a little too optimistic and naive?
Gamechanger -- is what best describes the debut of Bangla Bond, a taka-denominated debt instrument, on the London Stock Exchange on November 11 for Bangladesh.
Much has been said about the tremendous growth momentum of the Bangladesh economy. It was amongst the fastest growing nations in the world in the past decade, as per data from the state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics -- and the trend is expected to continue into the near future, too.
All great things start from small beginnings, it is often said. And Bangladesh’s eight-place leap forward in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 index can be viewed in this light.
In 2011, with great hope, Monwara Shameem had handed over her 8.25 decimals of land in Mohakhali DOHS to a reputed developer to construct a six-storied apartment building.
The template of nuclear family, in which the dad went to work and the mum stayed at home, is fast on its way out.
People do not lack strength; they lack will, the French poet and novelist Victor Hugo once said. The words perfectly describe the government’s attitude thus far towards fixing the banking sector.
Each month, Ayesha Amin, a housewife, aims to put Tk 5,000 of the money her husband hands over to her for the running of the house, in her savings account.
All eyes were on fever-stricken Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal as he stepped into parliament to unveil his maiden national budget yesterday.
The Bangladesh economy is taxing for take-off -- for its long-haul flight to the developed country club, with couple of stopovers in between.
Credit card: two words the mention of which turn many into full-blown cynics. While it is undeniable that anyone who has a credit card risks running up too much debt -- a milestone that might take several years and lots of sacrifice to get rid of -- if used wisely the benefits can outweigh the downsides.
The holy month of Ramadan that crescendos in Eid-ul-Fitr is undoubtedly the dearest for people in Bangladesh.
Technology is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts after the gift of life, eminent American physicist Freeman Dyson once said -- and
Debit cards are the happy medium between credit cards and cash -- one gets the convenience of carrying a card without the risk of
The third annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank wrapped up yesterday with calls from one of its earliest champions, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to scale up its lending tenfold over the next two years.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank plans to lend out $3.5 billion this year, with India, Bangladesh and Turkey to take greater focus than the other 83 member countries, said DJ Pandian, its chief investment officer.
Bangladesh is progressively becoming one of the more important countries for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, with the China-led multilateral lender looking to bankroll energy and transport projects in the country.
South Korean electronics giant LG Electronics is working to set up a manufacturing plant in Bangladesh, in a development that is set to
If there is one indicator that epitomises the government’s mismanagement of the economy in recent times, it is inflation -- which raced to an 11-year high of 9.94 percent in May.
Self-contradictory is what best describes Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s fifth budget, and the last of the Awami League-led government’s current term.
In 2019, when AHM Mustafa Kamal took charge as the finance minister, the Bangladesh economy was taxing for take-off for its long-haul flight to the developed country club.
This year was always supposed to be a celebration of Bangladesh’s economic progress with the opening of Padma bridge and Dhaka metro rail and 100 percent electrification.
Ever since Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s economic turmoil, Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves has become a part of public discourse. So much so that despite having an official figure from the central bank every week, people are speculating.
Inflation raced to a nine-year high of 7.56 percent in June, in a development that lays bare the extent of the cost of living crisis gripping the low-income and middle-class people in Bangladesh thanks to a war taking place some 5,800 kilometres away in Ukraine.
When reassurance was needed, he exuded panic.
What is the purpose of the national budget? In essence, it is to allocate scarce resources.
Wishful thinking -- is what best describes the maiden tax amnesty campaign the government is planning to lure money back home next fiscal year.
When thinking outside the box was needed, the government opted for the tried-and-tested method.