Inflation, currency prime focus of BB’s next monetary policy

Agency

Published: January 15, 2024, 11:27 PM

Inflation, currency prime focus of BB’s next monetary policy

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) will announce its next monetary policy on Wednesday for the second half of the fiscal year 2023-24 to tame inflation and ease exchange rate pressure.

As part of the preparation, the draft of the monetary policy was approved at the central bank board meeting on Sunday.

Officials who attended the board meeting told UNB that the exchange rates would not be real market-based in the upcoming monetary policy as the foreign exchange market is not stable yet.

The government policymakers instructed to keep the market under control by following the crawling peg system.

“Crawling pegs help control currency movement, especially when there are  threats of devaluation. The purpose of crawling pegs is to provide stability,” said an official of the BB involved in the preparation of the monetary policy statement.

The monetary policy will focus on controlling  the growing inflation, which has been a burning issue over the last eight months.

Economist and co-founder of PRI Dr Sadiq Ahmed, Director General of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Research (BIDS) Binayak Sen, and Chairman of the Economics Department of the Dhaka University Masuda Yasmin are in the monetary policy committee.

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