Foreign banks operating in Bangladesh registered an 8.57 per cent growth in deposits in the October-December quarter of 2022, the highest since 2018, as many savers shifted their funds from local banks amid a confidence crisis. 

Three issues would be dictating the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, the last of the Awami League government’s present five-year term: the International Monetary Fund’s conditions, the persistently high inflation and next year’s national election.

Inflation followed by greedflation followed by shrinkflation – is there no way out of this trap?

There has also been very little policy response to help out families at the bottom of the income ladder

With the soaring inflation rate in recent times, the importance of effective public food distribution cannot be emphasised enough.

The smartphone market in Bangladesh witnessed a double-digit decline for the first time in seven years in 2022 while the feature phone market grew slightly at the same time, according to the latest Market Monitor report by Counterpoint Research.

The government has kept borrowing from the Bangladesh Bank as commercial banks can’t come up with much-needed funds owing to the liquidity crunch. 

Bangladesh is going through a period of economic slowdown and this weakening of the economy will be looming large for the entire period of 2023. The biggest problem for the common people now is inflation. It has increased the living cost and decreased the actual income.

Inflation eased for the fifth consecutive month as it fell to 8.57 per cent in January.

Abdul Wahab, a security guard at an ATM booth of a private bank in the capital, works 16 hours a day.

Bangladesh is expected to get about $6 billion over the next four years from development partners other than the International Monetary Fund to meet the development financing needs, particularly to address climate change challenges.

As the US dollar shortage persists, businesses in Bangladesh are increasingly finding it difficult to open letters of credit (LCs) since banks can’t supply the adequate American greenback needed to finance imports.

It bears remembering that, as recently as the second half of 2021, the Federal Reserve considered that the surge in consumer price inflation would dissipate, with price increases returning to the Fed’s 2 per cent target in 2022. In testimony before Congress, Fed Chair Jerome Powell affixed the now infamous “transitory” moniker to the ongoing price increases, which he ascribed to temporary supply bottlenecks and price declines in the early stages of the pandemic.

Why cut back on public food distribution programmes when they are needed the most?

It seems the government is doing an about-turn from the austerity stance taken at the start of the fiscal year.

The latest hike of gas prices undoubtedly spells trouble for industries as they will try to shift the burden onto consumers by raising product prices, which will boomerang onto them by eating away at their competitiveness in international markets. 

Due to government interventions, the independent oversight of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission is being compromised, crippling its ability to ensure transparency in the sector, energy at a reasonable cost, and consumers’ interest protection.

We are told that taka is available, and then it’s not there anymore.

The major challenges for Bangladesh will be keeping inflation under control while maintaining currency rate stability in the coming days, according to the Bangladesh Bank's annual report.

Tamed inflation, descending gas prices, more job openings coming to the market every month, and the US dollar’s continued reign in the currency market all promise a prosperous 2023 for everyone in America - citizens, residents, students, or even visitors. If you are planning to come as a tourist, enrol here as a student or visit the US by any other means, try it now.