IMF projects 7.1pc growth for Bangladesh
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted that Bangladesh’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth is likely to hit 7.1 per cent in fiscal 2019-end. Bangladesh’s economic growth is expected to reach 7.0 per cent in 2023, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook 2018 (WEO), which was released on Tuesday in Indonesia’s Bali. The IMF, in its global report, also projected that Bangladesh’s annual consumer prices would be 5.8 per cent by the end of 2018 and 6.1 per cent by 2019. The WB and the ADB in their latest projections forecasted a 7.0 per cent and 7.5 per cent GDP growth for Bangladesh respectively for fiscal year 2018-19. However, the IMF, in its report, projected global growth to be 3.7 per cent for 2018-19, or 0.2 percentage point lower for both years than forecasted in April. Some 45 emerging market and developing economies, accounting for 10 per cent of world GDP in purchasing-power-parity terms, are projected to grow by less than advanced economies in per capita terms over 2018-23, and hence to fall further behind in living standards, according to the IMF. The balance of risks to the global growth forecast is tilted to the downside, both in the short term and beyond.
Source: http://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/first-page/imf-projects-71pc-growth-for-bdesh-1539107528
Inflation drops to 18-month low
Inflation crawled down to its lowest in 18 months in September on the back of the continuous fall in food prices. Last month, inflation stood at 5.43 percent, down 5 basis points from the previous month, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The last time the inflation rate was lower than this was back in March 2017, when it stood at 5.39 percent. Food inflation fell 55 basis points to 5.42 percent from the previous month. This was preceded by 21 basis points decline the previous month. Non-food inflation though shot up 72 basis points to 5.45 percent last month. The pace of decline in food inflation is slowing while non-food inflation has continued to increase — a worrying development. Policy makers therefore cannot afford to be complacent. Rice price in September were on average 1 percent higher than in August. Acceleration in non-food inflation is due because of increased domestic demand fuelled by higher remittances and other stimulus to private expenditures. Cost push factors may also have played a role as exchange rate has continued to depreciate and transport costs appear to have increased
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/inflation-drops-18-month-low-1645036
Govt sets target to export $5.0b ICT products by 2021
The government has developed 32,000 skilled manpower in the ICT sector in the last five years to address the shortage of skilled workforce in the information and communications technology industry. The government has set a target of exporting ICT products worth US $5.0 billion by 2021 as the country’s fast-expanding industry has the capacity to reach the target following creation of the skilled manpower. Some 10,000 youths, out of the total number of trained youths, who are post-graduate in IT and science background, got training on Top-Up IT. The rest of 21,930 non-IT graduates received training on foundation course. Up to July, 2018, some 4,059 youths, who received training on Top-Up IT, got jobs in IT-ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) Institution. One monitoring apps has been developed to reserve the data of trained youths and a web portal (bdskills.gov.bd) has also been created for generating their employments.
Source: http://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade-market/govt-sets-target-to-export-50b-ict-products-by-2021-1539106269
Online shopping: improving delivery service
Online shopping is a very popular medium of shopping that saves lots of time of the shoppers. People do not need to go to market to buy a thing. They can easily order any product staying right at home and also get it delivered. Unfortunately, the defective delivery system is negatively affecting this experience of many. 20 per cent of all online returns are occurring because of damaged product delivery. E-customers are losing trust in online shopping while e-retailers are losing millions of dollars to faulty delivery service.
Source: http://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/editorial/online-shopping-improving-delivery-service-1539100264
Dhaka, Colombo to sign coastal shipping deal
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will sign coastal shipping agreement shortly. The two countries had already finalised the much awaited agreement. MCC refers to the logistics activity where less-than-container load (LCL) cargoes from different origins are combined into a full container load (FCL) and shipped to their destinations. It optimises cargo flows and reduces international transport costs for firms. It is especially useful for SMEs that ship small volumes and for large companies that source small volumes of goods from multiple countries or suppliers.
Source: http://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade-market/dhaka-colombo-to-sign-coastal-shipping-deal-1539106226
Stocks keep gaining as telecom, power jump
Stocks ended marginally higher on Tuesday, extending the gaining streak for the second day in a row, as some investors continued their buying appetite on sector-specific shares. Market operators said a section of investors showed their buying spree on pharmaceuticals, food, power and telecom issues, helping the market edge higher for the second day. The market opened higher and the key index rose more than 59 points within the first hour of trading. But rest of the session wiped out most of the early gains. Finally, the key index closed more than 14 points higher. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,455, advancing 14.86 points or 0.27 per cent over the previous day. Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 19.24 points to finish at 1,928 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 13.95 points to close at 1,278 points. Turnover, another important indicator of the market, remained same and total turnover on the DSE amounted to Tk 8.01 billion, which was also Tk 8.01 billion in the previous day. The power sector dominated the turnover chart, capturing 24 per cent of the day’s total turnover, followed by Textile with 15 per cent and pharmaceuticals 14 per cent. The port city’s bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended higher with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI -advancing 66 points to settle at 16,841 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX -gaining 43 points to finish at 10,202. The losers beat gainers as 136 issues closed lower, 84 ended higher and 22 remained unchanged on the CSE. The port city bourse traded 9.03 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 275 million in turnover.
Source: http://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/stock-corporate/stocks-keep-gaining-as-telecom-power-jump-1539098537
Innovative entrepreneurs can create quality jobs: experts
Bangladesh needs a lot of innovative entrepreneurs to create quality jobs, add value to the gross domestic product and help the country become a developed nation by 2041. It has to go one step further to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To attain the SDGs and reduce poverty, we need a group of inventors who will foster entrepreneurship in the society. To build a just, equal and innovative society, we must address the inequality and unemployment and come up with initiatives, efforts and ideas.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/innovative-entrepreneurs-can-create-quality-jobs-experts-1645030
Local and Global Stock Indices *
Index Name | Close Value | Value Change | Percentage Change |
---|
DSEX | 5,455.81068 | ↑14.86339 | ↑0.27% |
DJIA | 26,430.57 | ↓56.21 | ↓0.21% |
FTSE100 | 7,237.59 | ↑4.26 | ↑0.06% |
Nikkei 225 | 23,468.53 | ↓0.86 | ↓0.00% |
World Commodities *
Commodity | Close Value | Value Change | Percentage Change |
---|
Crude Oil (WTI) | $ 74.64 | ↓0.32 | ↓0.43% |
Crude Oil (Brent) | $ 84.81 | ↓0.19 | ↓0.22% |
Gold Spot | $ 1,189.97 | ↑0.20 | ↑0.02% |
Major Currencies Exchange Rates Movement in Last Seven Days *
Exchange Rates |
---|
USD 1 | BDT 83.7500 |
GBP 1 | BDT 110.1983 |
EUR 1 | BDT 96.3879 |
INR 1 | BDT 1.1281 |
*CURRENCIES AND COMMODITIES ARE TAKEN FROM BLOOMBERG.