Breaking a six-month downtrend, the investment in the national savings certificates increased significantly in the last three months as investment opportunity in the other sectors was squeezed in the period due to political unrest, said officials of the Directorate of National Savings.
According to the DNS data released on Tuesday, the net investment in savings certificates stood at Tk 515.14 crore in January-March whereas net investment during the same period of last year was a negative Tk 313.06 crore.
The overall net investment in the first nine months of this financial year stood at Tk 692.56 crore compared with that of Tk 21.01 crore during the same period of the FY 2011-12.
A DNS official told New Age that the increased sales of savings instruments in the third quarter might have been a temporary phenomenon.
The businesspeople along with the small and the medium entrepreneurs have failed to expand their investment in the productive sector due to the ongoing political turmoil which created an unfavourable business environment, he said.
Political turmoil increased in the last quarter ahead of the national elections whereas the first six months of the FY 2012-13 was relatively calm, he said.
‘The sales of savings tools increased in the third quarter as the investment opportunity in the other sectors has been squeezed due to the political situation,’ he said.
Besides, some of the investors bought NSCs as many of the banks are now hesitant to take deposits because of low credit growth, especially in the private sector.
A BB official said that the credit growth in the private sector declined to 13.96 per cent in February last compared with that of 19.55 per cent in the corresponding month of 2012 due mainly to the recent political violence.
Under the circumstances, the advance-deposit ratio in the banking sector went down significantly in March, he said.
The BB data showed that the ADR in the banking sector had declined to 75.28 per cent as of March 14, 2013 from 76.59 per cent as of December 31, 2012. The ADR was 80.33 per cent as of June 7, 2012.
DNS officials, however, said that the government might miss its annual target of Tk 7,400 crore net investment in the savings certificates as it failed to achieve the expected target of the net investment in the first nine months.
The DNS data showed that the net investment in the savings certificates in July to March of the FY 2012-13 stood at only Tk 692.56 crore, or 8.27 per cent of the annual target, as clients had cashed huge number of certificates in the period.
The savings certificates worth Tk 17,605.63 crore were sold during the first nine months of the FY 2012-13. But, in the same period the government paid Tk 16,913.07 crore in capital money to the investors. So, the net investment stood at Tk 692.56 crore as of March 31, 2013.
-With New Age input
