BM Report

Bangladesh should exercise flexible policies in managing her forex market and reserve, one senior Mastercard economist suggested on Sunday.

“Forex flexibility will make further progress in buffering shocks for Bangladesh’s economy,” said David Mann, Chief Economist, Asia Pacific, and MEA at Mastercard Economics Institute.

He was speaking as the keynote presenter at a stakeholders’ roundtable discussion. Mastercard organized the roundtable discussion on the ‘State of the Global, Regional, and Bangladesh Economic Outlook’ at the Grand Ballroom of the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

David said, like many other countries, Bangladesh should also keenly follow the impacts of hikes in bank rates in the USA.

“Countries should also pay serious attention to oil and commodity markets constantly and steer their economies accordingly,” he added.

The program discussed the post-pandemic challenges of high inflation, forex volatility, and a higher debt burden and their impacts in emerging markets.

Renowned economists and bankers, including Dr. Edimon Ginting and Country

Director at the Asian Development Bank in Bangladesh, Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur,

Economist and Executive Director at the Policy Research Institute, Dr. Muhammad A. (Rumee) Ali, former Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank.

Mamun Rashid, Managing Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Dr. Shah Md. Ahsan Habib, Director at the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), Dr. Zia Uddin Ahmed, a senior in the venture capital industry, and Abul Kashem Md. Shirin, Managing Director at the Dutch-Bangla Bank, also spoke at the roundtable. Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Head in Bangladesh for Mastercard, moderated the discussion.