In November 2021, the flow of remittance saw a decline. A lot of Bangladeshis living abroad are choosing to use illegal channels locally known as “Hundi”. This illegal system has led to a fall in remittance.

Eventful 2021 is coming to an end. Every sector of the economy fell victim to the never-ending coronavirus pandemic this year. Sometimes the fraudulent activities of e-commerce companies were the main topic of discussion, while corruption in the banking sector also came to the limelight to rock the nation. Efforts to get back to the economy's growing momentum were also seen. Watch this video of The Daily Star to know the significant events of the outgoing year.

It is now becoming an open secret that there have been conflicts between Bangladesh Bank and BSEC recently. What are the conflicts about? What can be the consequences?

Prices of most products have gone up in the global market due to recovering demands after the pandemic, alongside unprecedented shipping charges, and supply obstacles. As a result, inflation is rising in import-dependent countries like Bangladesh. Last October, inflation was the highest in the last 12 months, while non-food inflation was the highest in the last five years.

Once again, The National Board of Revenue’s (NBR) “highly secure” server got infiltrated. Cyber criminals used backdoor access to authorise phantom discharge of at least 156 tons of consignment from the Chittagong Port. No tax was paid for the consignments.

Almost eight percent of the country’s jobs are based in Dhaka City. This number rises to 40 percent when Gazipur, Narayanganj and other areas of greater Dhaka are included. Population density and Dhaka-centred investments are having a bad impact on the national economy. It’s also affecting urban development throughout the country. This loss equates to 6 – 10 percent loss of the GDP. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies presented the figures at the Annual Conference on Development.

Buying and using gold jewellery is a cultural phenomenon. People also buy gold as financial security or a rainy day fund. However, buying gold is only the first step. How would you get a fair price selling it? Todays’ Star Explains brings various aspects of selling used gold jewellery.

“Call Drop” is a technical term used for describing calls that drop due to technical errors of mobile service providers. The main cause behind this is poor signal. According to a recent report by the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), mobile phone users in Bangladesh have received only 22 minutes of compensation for every 100 minutes of call drop in the fiscal year 2020-21. This led to a loss of Tk 16.5 crore for mobile phone users. What are the main reasons for call drops?

Since it started in 1995, Dhaka International Trade Fair has always been held at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar. If everything goes according to plan, the 26th installment of the trade fair is set to be held in 2022. Next year, the fair will be permanently relocated to a new venue.

Tropical cyclone Jawad brought two consecutive days of continuous rainfall in the country, which in turn marred the upcoming winter harvest in many districts.

For the first time in history the value of one US dollar has exceeded the 90-taka mark in informal market The moment our economy started to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the value of taka against the dollar started to go down.

China pulled out of two of the largest railway projects -- Joydebpur-Ishwardi Double-Line Project budgeted at TK 14,250 crore and Akhaura-Sylhet Dual-Gauge Railway Line budgeted at TK 16,104 crore. Now the Bangladesh government is seeking new investors for these two projects which will improve connectivity of Dhaka with the north-east and north-west of the country respectively.

Great news for Bangladesh on the year of the golden jubilee. Bangladesh has been promoted to a developing country from an underdeveloped country. After 45 years of being a Least Developed Country (LDC), the UN has updated its status.

A mammoth source of income for the National Board of Revenue is now source tax on savings instruments. In the last fiscal year, the government has earned around Tk 3,000 crore from taxing savings tools, the majority of which comes from middle class citizens and small investors.

Bangladesh had surpassed India, the subcontinental superpower, in terms of per capita GDP for the first time back in 2020. This year, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that Bangladesh will remain ahead of India in terms of GDP per capita for the next 5 years, i.e. till 2026. A report on Bangladesh’s economic progress was published in The Daily Star. Keep an eye on Star News+ for a roundup.

The E-commerce industry has grown exponentially in the last few years. But in the last few months, information of irregularities in the industry has come to light. Allegedly, e-commerce companies have funneled several crores from customers with alluring advertisements and massive discounts.

Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have established a number of businesses overseas. Six more companies will be granted licenses to start new businesses. In 2014, the Bangladesh Bank began enabling local businesses to invest offshore.

Everything from fish, meat, clothing, medicine, car, flat is available on various E-commerce websites, social media groups and pages. The E-commerce business is crossing the Tk 1,000 crore threshold. But many of these businesses are scamming people by offering unrealistic profit margins.

Remittance flow is reducing. It was $ 1.25 billion lower in the first three months of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period of last year. Are the illegal channels of money transfer re-emerging? What are the thoughts of economists on this?

Economic jargon, political consolidations fail to give solace to the struggling masses to hold on to a normal life amid the escalating prices of almost all commodity goods.