Here’s to hoping that the interim government initiates targeted and critical reforms in FY2026 to improve budget implementation
The FY2026 budget must be more than a mere fiscal statement.
With the central bank agreeing to go for a flexible exchange rate, the IMF will disburse the fourth and fifth instalments in June this year.
Controlling inflation should be a top priority for the interim government.
The Spring Meetings indicate that the IMF and World Bank are at a crossroads.
From the perspective of attracting FDI, the gas price hike poses a significant challenge.
Bangladesh faced a crippling 37 percent tariff on its exports to the US.
The root cause of gender-based violence lies in deeply entrenched power imbalances between men and women.
Social sector budget traditionally receives less attention amidst big allocation for the hardware part of the economy. Infrastrucutre,
Bangladesh's long dynamic relationship with India has many facets, ranging from economic to social to political.
A lot of time has been spent on improving primary education enrolment. Global goals emphasise on 'education for all' and focus on bringing more people under the umbrella of primary level education.
In order to have any meaningful decentralised policy implementation, the budget-making process should involve the local administration, law makers, and all stakeholders.
The number of educated women has increased over time, but the rate of highly educated women is not as large yet when compared to men. Statistics show that women's educational attainment at the secondary level is higher than men. However, it starts to decline afterwards.
Just at the time when a major conference on the apparel sector of Bangladesh was held on February 25 in Dhaka with the promise to work together for a better tomorrow, disappointing news on labour rights in the readymade garments sector has surfaced.
The banking sector in Bangladesh has been plagued with a number of disappointing trends for some time.
Export performance of Bangladesh in the recent past has been somewhat gloomy. During July-December 2016, Bangladesh's exports grew by only 4.4 percent which was targeted to achieve a growth of 8 percent.
Recently, I had the unique opportunity to interact with more than fifty children aged around sixteen years. They had just finished their tenth grade at school.
The most shocking incidence of 2016 has been the terrorist attack in Holey Artisan Bakery. The nature of the attack was different from earlier single incidences where religious militants killed members of minority groups, two foreigners and a number of bloggers.
