Govt must do more to stop consumers’ purchasing power erosion

Government must adapt to new reality and go for long-term measures

Some say that living in Dhaka is not easy and for those who have lived here for years, nothing is easy. In fact, living in this city makes it easier to tolerate any other inconvenience with a hair-flip. Someone spat inches away from your feet? Tolerate. It landed on you? Wipe and move on. The world might have a fancy word like noise pollution for needlessly honking cars but we know it for what it really is — soothing white noise that one could even fall asleep to. Which happens often, during the long respites the city graciously bestows on us to and from work every day without fail. We lovingly call them traffic jams.

Government must step up efforts to bring down food prices

Savers are now facing losses on their deposits with banks due to surging inflation, with many solely dependent on interest earnings finding themselves in a tight corner.

People in rural areas were hit harder by food and non-food inflation than those in urban areas over the last two months, with the overall inflation surging to a 10-year high of 9.52 percent in August.

High inflation and low export and remittance earnings are a major cause for concern at the moment.

Bangladesh’s private sector credit growth surged to 14.07 per cent in August, almost touching the central bank’s target for the entire fiscal year, an ominous sign for the economy since it may stoke inflationary pressures. 

Those who artificially raised prices did the country a great disservice

Specific policy incentives are needed to stimulate the economy and revive the labour market.

Rising uncertainties are making global compromise and cooperation more unlikely

Bangladesh, which has been going through financial difficulties for several months now, can finally see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Private sector credit growth in Bangladesh rose further in July despite a contractionary monetary policy adopted by the Bangladesh Bank for the current fiscal year to tame higher inflation. 

Would it be possible to import fuel from Russia?

The message from the world's top finance chiefs is loud and clear: rampant inflation is here to stay and taming it will take an extraordinary effort, most likely a recession with job losses and shockwaves through emerging markets.

An economy without an independent source of data is like an aircraft flying without its airspeed sensors.

That high inflationary pressure has been taking a toll on people over the last couple of months is apparently evident in supermarkets, where the same amount of money is being spent albeit for the purchase of a lower number and volume of goods. 

The nascent mobile phone manufacturing industry in Bangladesh has been hit hard by the higher inflation, unprecedented dollar price hike, and increased value-added tax as their sales have plummeted amid belt-tightening by consumers. 

At the current rate, some people may soon be unable to afford food

Does the government not know of the plight of lower- and middle-income groups?