Business

World Bank country director Johannes Zutt on Wednesday said improving political and economic governance and developing institutions to manage the growing economy in the country were required to accelerate growth and to reduce poverty. Bangladesh also needs to undertake reforms in energy

Trading sector gets 65pc of Tk 47,130cr loan Sixty-five per cent of Tk 47,130-crore SME loan disbursed by scheduled banks and non-bank financial institutions in the first half of 2014 went to trading sector bypassing the manufacturing zone, according to BB data released on Tuesday. Experts said that the major financial goal of small and medium ... Read more

The average point-to-point inflation increased to 7.04 per cent in July from 6.97 per cent in June following the price hike of non-food items during the month of Ramadan, planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said on Tuesday. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data showed that the non-food inflation rose to 5.71 per cent in July which ... Read more

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday decided to ask the Dhaka Stock Exchange to suspend its general manager Khandaker Asad Ullah immediately for share trading by his family members violating securities rules. The commission will also ask DSE to take departmental

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday fined Dragon Sweater and Spinning Ltd Tk 5 lakh for providing false information about acquisition of land in the initial public offering document. The regulator also fined Dragon Sweater’s issue manager First Securities Services Ltd Tk 5 lakh for not checking the information before applying to the commission

Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday asked non-bank financial institutions to collect information annually from their loan recipients to verify the use of the disbursed credits and see if the recipients diverted the loan to another sector. The BB asked the NBFIs to prepare a questionnaire for their loan recipients so that they (NBFIs) would be able to ... Read more

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved initial public offering of Hamid Fabrics Ltd to issue three-crore shares at the price of Tk 35 each with a premium of Tk 25. The decision was made in a regular commission meeting presided over by BSEC chairman M Khairul Hossain. Hamid Fabrics will raise Tk 105 crore ... Read more

Experts express concern over contaminated Indian chili influx Farmers, academics, business leaders and representatives from government and non-government organisations on Tuesday expressed concern over increasing import of chili to Bangladesh as the trend would discourage local growers to grow the crop. They also expressed concern over influx of Indian

A pilot project for the initial public offering subscription fee collection through brokerage houses and merchant banks instead of banks will now start in September. July 15 this year was the earlier timeline for the project set by the stock market regulator commission. The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission set

Dhaka stocks declined on Tuesday due to profit taking share sell-offs by the investors following straight six trading sessions’ bullish trend in the market. The key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, declined to 4,526.49 points, shedding 0.84 per cent or 38.64 points. DSEX had advanced 144.52 points

Qatar Airways is now offering customers in Bangladesh up to 25 per cent off on economy class and premium cabin fares to a wide variety of destinations, said a news release on Monday. The promotion, which runs till August 15, offers customers the opportunity to travel to a variety of destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, ... Read more

Export earnings in July, the first month of the current financial year, posted a negative growth of 1.37 per cent year-on-year after 23 months of positive growth as the export growth of garment products dropped in the month. In the first month of the current financial year, the export earnings fell by 2.03 per cent to ... Read more

Most of the complaints that the country’s mobile phone operators receive are related to billing and service quality, showed a recent data of the telecom regulator. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in May asked the six mobile operators to submit their customer complaint-related data to

The country’s current account balance dipped by 35.21 per cent to $1.54 billion in the recently concluded financial year against $2.38 billion in the FY 2012-13 due to a lower growth in remittance and higher payments for import in the period. Experts and BB officials said the drop in the

The Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges on Monday suspended Shahjibazar Power Company’s share trading till further notice as the company’s share price rose by 256.80 per cent or Tk 64.20 since its debut at Tk 25 in mid-July. A DSE web post on Monday said, ‘Pursuant to BSEC’s investigation and recent unusual upward price movement of ... Read more

The government is going to take hard-term loans worth more than US$ 1.5 billon to implement development projects and maintain uninterrupted fuel oil imports after it failed to woo the multilateral donors to provide soft loans. The projects include 275 megawatt thermal power plant at Barapukuria and 365 megawatt combined power plant at Ghorashal. They

Dhaka stocks advanced for the sixth trading session on Monday with the key index of the Dhaka bourse hitting three months high as large capitalised companies continued to draw investors’ attention. Heavyweights Lafarge Surma Cement, Square Pharmaceuticals and Grameenphone gained 3.67 per cent, 1.93 per cent and 1.83 per cent respectively on the day. The key

Md Jashim Uddin has been elected as the president of the Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association for the 2014-15 term, said a news release on Monday. Giasuddin Ahmed was elected senior vice-president while KM Iqbal Hossain and Md Golam Kibria were vice-presidents. BPGMEA election board acting

Economists see little positive impact as the gap narrows on lower import growth The country’s trade deficit hit its four-year low at $6.80 billion in the financial year 2013-2014 due to a lower-than-expected import growth in the period. The gap between export earnings and import payments was $7 billion in FY13, $9.32 billion in the ... Read more

Tokyo has attached a set of conditions including ‘single window’ facility for ensuring a speedy approval process for investment in Bangladesh, said the officials. They have also asked to simplify the procedure for getting VISA, work permit and so on to boost economic relations and step up Japanese investment