Bangladesh Bank has decided to keep the policy interest rate not coming to 10 percent as before in the inflation.
On Tuesday, the central bank announced the monetary policy for the first half of the financial year, i.e. next July-December. The central bank office in Motijheel in the capital was present at the event organized by Governor Mostakur Rahman, Deputy Governor Habibur Rahman, Nurun Nahar and other senior officials.
At the beginning of the program, Deputy Governor Habibur Rahman highlighted various aspects of the new monetary policy, he said, where the economic growth of the country should be between 6 to 7 percent, it is currently 4 to 5 percent. In this situation, economic growth is brought down and at the same time, the central bank is a challenge for the central bank to bring in inflation.
The central bank policy has kept interest rates unchanged at 10 percent in monetary policy. In this case interbank borrowing, the policy interest rate standing lending facility (SLF) remains unchanged 11.50 percent. Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) remains unchanged at 7.50 percent.
This interest rate is applicable for keeping money with banks in the central bank.
The Deputy Governor said that this decision has been taken to keep the policy interest rate unchanged considering the current economic context after discussions with all stakeholders including economists, bankers, businessmen, teachers, journalists, intellectuals.
Central Bank hopes that this policy position will show positive stimulus in gross domestic product (GDP) within the next six months and inflation in the market will also decrease gradually.
The monetary policy has been announced that the government has set a target of bringing GDP growth to 6 percent for the new fiscal year and 7 percent in the inflation rate. Bangladesh Bank has also made monetary policy in line with this goal. In other words, the central bank expects that inflation will come down to 7 percent in the next financial year.
Governor Mostakur Rahman said, ‘The central bank has come up with a specific action plan for the next 18 months to bring the defaulted loans to the commissars. In the first six months of this policy, the policy of the new policy is in financial crisis, but the capacity of the business has to be managed - we will get the opportunity to settle the loan by paying a one-time loan. But now we are not giving any more opportunities to dispose of the debt.’
The Governor added that the Central Bank is preparing to enact two laws for the next year, one is the Finance Court Act and the other is the Resource Management Act, which is the end of the court's trial, as if the court's trial is over in the maximum of six months.
The case is currently in the financial debt courts or other courts, and the recommendation is to reduce the opportunity, the Governor said that if the law is passed, the poison will get a different dimension in 2027. According to the new law, the harmful assets of banks cannot be kept in their financial statements outside the specified limits, but they will be forced to transfer them to the wealth management company.
Governor Mostakur Rahman said that zero tolerance policy will be followed in case of any kind of deviation or inconclusiveness to ensure good governance in the banking sector.
The Governor also said, ‘Our banking supervision department has made it clear that if any violation is achieved, the punishment will be maximum. Earlier, the punishment would have been minimum level of punishment, but from now on, the maximum punishment will be given."
