Chattogram: Bangladesh Bank (BB) is set to hold its inaugural meeting with stakeholders, including economists, in Chattogram tomorrow to gather necessary suggestions for formulating the upcoming Monetary Policy Statement (MPS). This marks the first time such a meeting will be conducted outside of Dhaka, with plans to extend similar meetings to other divisions in the future, a senior BB official announced.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the meeting will see participation from Chattogram-based economists, university teachers, business leaders, journalists, bankers, and policy-makers. The central bank aims to announce its MPS for the second half of the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) by the end of this month. This MPS will be the first under the leadership of Dr. Ahsan H Mansur, who assumed the role of governor following a political changeover on August 5 last year.
The forthcoming MPS is being crafted with a 'contractionary' approach, prioritizing measures to combat inflation. The central bank is engaging with both internal and external stakeholders and economists as part of this process. Recently, discussions were held with leading research organizations at Lakeshore Hotel in Gulshan, Dhaka, focusing on potential policy measures.
Research organizations involved included the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, and South Asian Network on Economic Modelling. The BB official noted that a central bank committee is tasked with summarizing observations from these discussions regarding the MPS's goals and format, which includes regulating currency and lending rates. The finalized policy is expected to be approved by the board of directors of Bangladesh Bank on January 22, with a subsequent date set for its implementation.
Bangladesh has been grappling with inflation rates exceeding 9 percent since March 2023, despite the central bank's ongoing contractionary monetary policy. The policy rate, which is the interest rate at which commercial banks borrow from the central bank, has been raised several times to 10 percent. However, inflation slightly eased to 10.89 percent in December of the last calendar year, down from 11.38 percent in the previous month, as reported by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
On July 18, 2024, the central bank released the last MPS for the first half of the current fiscal year, FY25.