The monetary policy for the second half of the current financial year 2024-25 is likely to be announced on February 10. This information is known from the sources of the central bank, the regulatory body of the financial sector.
According to sources, the board meeting of Bangladesh Bank will be held on February 9. The next day i.e. February 10 is the possible date for monetary policy.
Several central bank officials said the MPS is being formulated for the second half of the current fiscal year, maintaining a ‘contractionary’ mode and giving priority to tackling inflation. The central bank is meeting with internal and external stakeholders as well as economists in formulating the monetary policy.
On August 5 of last year, after the change of political pot became the governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr. Ahsan H Mansoor to announce monetary policy for first time.
The central bank recently discussed possible policy steps with the country’s leading research organizations at the Lakeshore Hotel in Gulshan in the city. The organizations include the Bangladesh Development Research Institute, Bangladesh Policy Research Institute and the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling.
Inflation in Bangladesh has been above 9 percent since March 2023, with the central bank’s existing contractionary monetary policy yet to bring down commodity prices.
Bangladesh Bank has since raised the policy interest rate several times to 10 percent. The rate at which commercial banks borrow from the central bank is the policy interest rate. But according to data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), inflation eased slightly to 10.89 percent in December of the just-ended year, from 11.38 percent in the previous month.
