News and Articles

The current liquidity crisis that has afflicted the economy has generated much debates and discussions. The government and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) were supposed to take necessary initiatives and they did take some policy measures. The measures are:  (a) reverting to Advance-Deposit Ratio (ADR) of 85 per cent from 83.5 per cent declared previously;   (b) reducing the Cash-Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 1.0 per cent; (c) moving 50 per cent of government deposits lying with the public banks to private banks for easing the crisis.  Whether these will solve the problem depends on proper identification of the causes behind this grim situation of liquidity which is still posing a threat to macroeconomic stability, and thereby, to sustainable growth. A number of reasons existed which led to the present harsh reality.  Let us look at the problem at first from the supply side. As deposit interest rates declined to a low level, people started withdrawing their deposits from the banks ...

Seven mega development projects by the government are well underway and are expected to have significant positive impact for the country. All of the seven top priority Fast Track Projects costing around $40 billion have now gained pace, although some of them are a few years behind the schedule. The projects are the Padma Bridge, Rooppur Nuclear Power project, Paira Sea Port, the coal fired large power projects of Matarbari and Rampal, Metro Rail and LNG terminal. Recently, another project -- Padma Bridge Rail Link project -- was included in the fast-track project. But it has not seen much progress as the Ecnec approve the Tk 34,988-crore scheme only early this month.  A ninth such project -- the Sonadia Deep Sea port -- remains shelved for now. The Rooppur project alone claims $12.65 billion. The Paira port project, which would take seven years to complete in three phases, also may need over $15 b -- depending on the final plan. The feasibility report of the Paira port project was ...