DHAKA, Jan 15, 2025 (BSS) – Bangladesh Bank (BB) is going to hold meeting for the first time with stakeholders as well economists at Chattogram tomorrow to take necessary suggestions for formulating the Monetary Policy Statement (MPS).    

 “We are going to hold meeting for the first time outside of Dhaka. This time, we are holding meeting at Chattogram. Later, we will also hold meeting other divisions,” said a senior BB official.

Talking to BSS, he said Chattogram based economists, university teachers, business leaders, journalists, bankers and policy-makers will take part in the meeting.

He, however, informed that the central bank will announce its MPS for the second half of the ongoing fiscal 2024-25 (FY25) at the end of this month. 

The MPS will be the first monetary policy to be announced by Dr Ahsan H Mansur who became governor of Bangladesh Bank following the political changeover on August 5 last year.

The MPS for the second half of the current fiscal is being formulated maintaining its 'contractionary' mood giving priority on inflation-combating, he said.

He also said that the central bank is holding meetings with internal and external stakeholders as well as economists.

As part of it, the central bank held a discussion with the country's leading research organisations yesterday at Lakeshore Hotel in Gulshan in the city on potential policy measures, he added.

The organisations included the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh and South Asian Network on Economic Modelling.

The official said the central bank committee forming the monetary policy will ultimately summarise the observations from various quarters regarding its goals and format, including measures for regulating currency and lending rates, before finalising it on January 20.

Then the board of directors of Bangladesh Bank will approve the policy on January 22 and set a date for announcing it for implementation.

Inflation in Bangladesh has been hovering above 9 percent since March 2023, with the central bank's existing contractionary monetary policy yet to cool consumer prices.

Bangladesh Bank has hiked the policy rate several times to 10 percent since then. The policy rate is the interest rate at which commercial banks borrow from the central bank.

But in December of the just concluded calendar year, inflation had eased slightly to 10.89 percent from 11.38 percent the previous month, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

On July 18, 2024, the central bank unveiled the last MPS for the first half of the current fiscal FY25.