Home ›› 17 Mar 2022 ›› Front
The number of bank accounts with deposits of Tk 1 crore and above rose by 8,086 at the end of last year, as per the latest data from the Bangladesh Bank.
The number of such accounts was 1,00,239 at the end of September last year. Moreover, the number was 93,890 in 2020 and 83,839 in 2019.
This is a sign of income inequality as the low-income people are struggling to buy food because of price hikes of essentials, said Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
He said when prices of essential commodities rise, it negatively affects the low-income people while at the same time, some people create opportunities to earn more money.
“The low-income people in the country have suffered in the past two years due to high prices of daily essentials, including rice, edible oil, sugar, flour, and red lentils, as well as price hikes of diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, and water,” he also said.
Banks disbursed loans from the stimulus packages announced by the government amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which might be another reason behind the increase in the number of such bank accounts, Mustafizur pointed out.
He said when income inequality widens, the importance of social safety net programmes also increases. “The government’s expenses would also go up.”
Funds in the accounts with deposits of Tk 1 crore and above stood at Tk 6,53,858 crore last year, up from Tk 5,95,286 crore a year ago, the central bank data shows.
Bankers said people were keeping idle money in their accounts instead of investing as private sector investment remained stagnant after the outbreak of Covid-19.
They also said private sector investment is almost halted till now, which is the reason behind the increasing trend of bank accounts with deposits of Tk 1 crore and above.
