Home ›› 29 May 2022 ›› Front
Governor of the Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir has called on bankers to face the ongoing inflation and foreign exchange market challenges.
The banking sector was facing the biggest challenge amid the Covid-19 pandemic and all banks had to work collectively to face it, he told a scholarship awarding programme organised by Al-Arafah Islami Bank at the Officers’ Club Dhaka on Saturday.
The central bank governor said trade deficits had increased due to the inflation and forex market challenges.
Trade deficits rose to $24.9 billion between July and March of the current fiscal year, the Bangladesh Bank data shows.
“We will be able to face the challenges if you [bankers] comply with the restrictions on importing luxury items and non-essential goods,” Fazle Kabir said.
The central bank on May 10 tightened the letter of credit (LC) opening rules to ease the import payment pressure on the economy.
Fazle Kabir said the central bank continued to sell US dollar from the reserves to support the forex market. “This will continue in the coming days.”
Growing imports amid the Russia-Ukraine war and economic recovery from the pandemic have created pressure on Bangladesh’s forex reserves.
LC settlements, also known as actual import payments, increased by 49.66 per cent to $61 billion from July to March of this fiscal year, the central bank data shows.
Al-Arafah Islami Bank Chairman Selim Rahman presided over the event while its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Farman R Chowdhury, members of the board of directors, senior officials, and scholarship recipients as well as their parents were also present.
Under its corporate social responsibility programme, the bank provided scholarships for 200 students who had passed higher secondary certificate and equivalent examinations in 2019.
