Reaz Ahmad

A minister was telling me the other day that if people don't mind spending Tk. 300 on a cheese burger, why can't they afford a little more for rice?

Rice import by the private sector has dropped to a four-year low at a time when its prices have shot up in the domestic market. Traders imported only 1.2 lakh tonnes of rice till mid-June in the current fiscal year against 2.56 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal year.

The government yesterday sanctioned 2.5 lakh tonnes of rice import from Vietnam at prices much higher than that of another one lakh tonnes it approved for import two weeks ago.

Considering the fast approaching general election in Bangladesh and a likely post-Brexit economic slowdown in Europe, the International Monetary Fund has identified seven risk areas where Dhaka needs to take policy measures.

When the price of garlic in China is plummeting with a huge harvest in the country's north, Bangladesh is seeing price hike of imported garlic.

The government will keep aside almost three-fourths of the proposed increase in the social safety net allocation for giving retirement benefits to public employees in the next fiscal year.

It's a life-saving drug often prescribed by doctors for patients with serious kidney and liver problems and also for newborns with a blood-related disease. But to get this already pricey drug called albumin, patients will have to pay more, thanks to the imposition of 15 percent value added tax (VAT) on it on top of a 4 percent advance income tax (AIT) and 5 percent advance trade VAT (ATV).

Among the essential commodities, coarse rice price registered the highest rise in the last one year, according to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) which keeps track of prices of daily necessities.

Halima Khatun, a 55-year-old widow, has to rely on income from fixed deposit receipt (FDR).

The government has decided to provide the poor with subsidised food, despite experiencing a bad crop year owing to early deluge in

The number of beneficiaries, who get allowances and food from the government under various social safety net programmes (SSNPs),

When Finance Minister AMA Muhith presents the budget in parliament tomorrow, he will likely gloat about it -- Tk four lakh crore in size -- which is 26 percent bigger than the one for the outgoing fiscal year. Not that presenting a big budget is of great significance for Muhith; he has been doing it for the past few years. In fact, it is under his tutelage that the budget has risen from below Tk one lakh crore in 2009 to Tk four lakh crore this time around.

A fifth of the forthcoming fiscal year's total development budget is earmarked for six fast-track projects to make their progress visible before the next general elections.

The government is getting ready to further increase its fiscal outlay on food dole in the 2017-18 fiscal year.

Amidst a major Boro crop loss, Bangladesh for the first time in five years is going to the international market to buy rice with the aim of reining in the soaring prices of the staple.

The Asian Development Bank is upscaling its loan portfolio in Bangladesh to nearly double this year, to keep pace with its economy

Bangladesh is opposed to any regional hub of the Asian Development Bank as most country and sub-regional offices are faring well,

Asia's future development funding has to come from the private sector through public-private partnerships, said Takehiko Nakao,

Bangladesh has been named one of the six emerging Asian economies where growth gathered momentum, with the other five being India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Poverty would no longer exist in Bangladesh after 2024, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said in his speech at the 50th annual meeting of