Business

The planning ministry on Sunday asked the project directors under the annual development programme to surrender the allocated funds which are likely to remain unspent by the current financial year 2014-15, officials said. The portion of total allocation which may remain unused in the FY15 will have to be surrendered to the planning ministry by March ... Read more

Dhaka stocks fell marginally in volatile trading on Sunday, the first trading session of the week, due to profit-taking share sell-offs by investors after an eight-session rise. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, fell by 0.21 per cent, or 10.54 points, to close at 4,831.17 points on Sunday. The market ended negative amid

Canadian high commissioner says at briefing on Showcase Canada 2015 Canadian high commissioner Benoit Pierre Laramee on Sunday expressed his concern over the ongoing political unrest in Bangladesh and said the situation would put a terrible impact on the country’s economy and business activities. The envoy was speaking at a press conference on the Showcase Canada ... Read more

Mobile Number Protability BTRC now goes for appointing third party as telcos delay The country’s telecom regulator has now decided to implement the mobile number portability service through a third-party model as the mobile phone operators have been delaying the process since January 2014. The regulator will now choose a vendor for the job and they ... Read more

The country’s tea growers have demanded duty increase on import of tea by more than 25 percentage points to protect the local producers from ‘uneven competition’ with the imported one. The Bangladesh Tea Association earlier this month placed its demand to the finance and commerce ministries and the National Board of Revenue seeking an increase of ... Read more

‘Political unrest to hit export, remittance’ Country’s business community prefers political stability and sound business environment to financial incentives in order to bring momentum in the economic activities, said the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday. The chamber in the economic review for Q2 of the financial year 2014-15 said restoring confidence among the ... Read more

Turnover also increases amid lacklustre strike Dhaka stocks advanced significantly last week after a four-week fall due to support from some state-owned entities and lukewarm strike enforced by the BNP-led alliance. The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, closed at 4,841.72 points on Thursday, adding 3.34 per cent or 156.68 points over the week. Of ... Read more

Twelve scheduled banks including eight state-run banks held 70.06 per cent of the total defaulted loans in the banking sector as of December 31, 2014 as they disbursed huge amount of loans unlawfully to their clients, said Bangladesh Bank officials. Three out of the 12 banks also failed to keep required provision against their disbursed loans ... Read more

Newly-Listed cos’ Shares BSEC finds abnormal price rise linked to margin loan facility The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has found that the margin loan facility for buying the newly-listed companies’ shares is playing a key role in abnormal rise in the share prices of the companies, BSEC officials said. They said the commission, based on ... Read more

10 lakh people call on the Italian co to contribute $5m Italian fashion brand Benetton is facing renewed pressure to contribute to a compensation fund for victims of the Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza factory disaster in which more than 1,100 people died, reports The Guardian. Almost 1 million (10 lakh) people have signed a petition on Avaaz, ... Read more

The prices of beef and mutton went up in the capital’s kitchen markets over the week ending Friday. Traders said that the market experienced a supply shortage of cows and goats due to interrupted transportation caused by the ongoing non-stop blockade and frequent hartals (general strike) called by the BNP-led opposition alliance across the country. The prices ... Read more

The imports of capital machinery and rice increased by 28.54 per cent and 148.63 per cent respectively in the first half of the current financial year 2014-15 compared with the corresponding period of the FY14. Bangladesh Bank officials and experts said there was no logical cause of increase in the capital machinery import in the first ... Read more

Food inflation again started to rise just after falling in December and stood at 6.07 per cent in January from that of 5.86 per cent in December due mainly to the ongoing blockades and hartals causing severe disruption in transportation of essential food items. Point-to-point inflation, however, continued to drop

Average monthly earning of a rickshaw puller is Tk 11,517 while a three-wheeler driver earns Tk 35,915 a month, according to a survey report of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. A battery-run easy bike consumes electricity worth Tk 2,600 a month, the report said. The BBS on Tuesday released the report titled

Four-day textile machinery expo begins today Country’s ongoing political crisis is affecting the textile industry as the buyers are refraining from placing new orders and also offering lower prices, said the textile mills owners on Tuesday. They said the prolonged political crisis has been severely hampering the production, but the cost of production remained unchanged which ... Read more

Eight Age-Old Mutual Funds ICB submits fresh time-extension plea to BSEC twisting proposal The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh has submitted a fresh proposal to the capital market regulator, seeking another 10-year extension of the tenure of the eight age-old mutual funds it manages. Officials of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission said the state-owned investment firm ... Read more

The inflow of remittance decreased by 2.05 per cent in January of this financial year compared with that in the corresponding month of FY2013-14 due mainly to the recent spate of political violence, said officials of the central bank. According to Bangladesh Bank data released on Monday, the expatriate Bangladeshis sent US$ 1.23 billion in remittance ... Read more

Want restoration of uninterrupted supply chain The Buyers Forum, the platform of the representatives of global brands, retailers and buyers, on Monday expressed its deep concern over the ongoing political unrest in Bangladesh and requested the government to resolve the impasse immediately. In a meeting with the garment manufacturers at Hotel Westin in the capital the ... Read more

Bangladesh Tanners’ Association claimed on Monday the ongoing political programmes including nationwide nonstop blockade and intermittent general strikes caused a loss of over Tk 450 crore in the tannery industry in the month of January. At a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, the association made a clarion call to the prime minister, Bangladesh

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said downward revision of the targeted growth of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current fiscal year is a must as the ongoing blockade has crippled all kinds of economic activities. ‘It (blockade) is not only hampering the implementation status of the budget but also destabilizing all kinds of economic ... Read more