BB to announce monetary policy online on July 18

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) tries to protect the economic development and stability of the country by announcing the monetary policy twice a year.

Accordingly, the central bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder will announce the new monetary policy for the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2024-25 at 3:00pm on Thursday (July 18).

However, in a shift from tradition, the BB has decided to publish its monetary policy statement (MPS) online to avoid potential boycotts by economic reporters.

“The monetary policy will be announced in the presence of the officials concerned and will be published on the website at 3pm on July 18,” said Saiful Islam, the acting spokesperson and Executive Director of BB.

“A monetary policy meeting has already been held with the stakeholders. The meeting of the committee formed to formulate the policy will be held on July 14. The monetary policy will be passed in the board meeting of Bangladesh Bank on July 16,” he added.

Traditionally, the central bank has held press conferences where mainstream media reporters and senior journalists gather to discuss the MPS. During these events, the Bangladesh Bank governor and the chief economist explain various policy issues and respond to challenging questions about monetary policy and the banking sector’s performance.

However, breaking with this tradition, BB has now decided to release the MPS for the July-December period of FY 2024-25 through an online update.

Refayet Ullah Mirdha, President of the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF), commented on this development, noting that the central bank had previously restricted journalists’ access to cover the MPS unveiling press conference.

“We do not support a system where journalists can only enter Bangladesh Bank after officials permit them and schedule a time to talk. The ERF rejected this arrangement and is firm on demanding hassle-free access as before,” Mirdha said.

He emphasised that unless the central bank meets the journalists’ access demands, the ERF will continue to boycott Bangladesh Bank events.

According to the BB sources, despite repeated attempts, the inflation is not being controlled. As a result, inflation control will be one of the goals of monetary policy this time as well. In the current financial year, the target has been set to bring down the inflation to 6.5 percent. The central bank will formulate the monetary policy keeping this goal in mind.

However, economists say that it is not possible to reduce inflation to this level.

Inflation control is now one of the main tasks of the central bank. The BB aimed to reduce inflation to 8 percent in December last year and to 6 percent by June last. Meanwhile, inflation rose to 9.93 percent in October last. Headline inflation at the end of November was 9.49 percent. In December it was 9.41 percent. In June last, it stood at 9.73 percent. Loan interest rates are market-based to reduce inflation. Besides, the policy interest rate has also been increased which ultimately resulted in an increase of interest rate by more than 14 percent.