Oil price falls 2pc

Oil prices plunged around 2 per cent on Friday, on expectations that supply disruptions in the US Gulf of Mexico would be short-term, while recession fears clouded the demand outlook. Brent crude futures fell $1.45, or 1.5 per cent, to settle at $98.15 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $2.25, or 2.4 per cent, to settle at $92.09 a barrel. Both contracts gained more than 2 per cent on Thursday. Brent gained 3.4 per cent this week after last week’s 14 per cent tumble on fears that rising inflation and interest rates will hit economic growth and demand for fuel. WTI rose 3.5 per cent. On Thursday OPEC cut its forecast for growth in world oil demand in 2022 by 260,000 barrels per day (bpd). It now expects demand to rise by 3.1 million bpd this year. The IEA also raised its outlook for Russian oil supply by 500,000 bpd for the second half of 2022 but said Opec would struggle to boost production. US oil rigs rose three to 601 this week, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/global-economy/news/oil-price-falls-2pc-3094426

Credit card spending soars with increasing living costs: BB

Credit card debt has surged as consumers struggle to keep up with the high cost of living amid rising inflation, reports UNB. As the prices of all kinds of products including essentials are on the rise in the market people have been using their credit card loans. According to the latest data of Bangladesh Bank (BB), credit card transactions have increased by about 29 per cent in a span of one year. Credit card transactions in June 2021 were Tk 19.35 billion and in June 2022, the amount of transactions increased to Tk 24.91 billion. Credit card transactions have increased by 29 per cent or Tk 5.56 billion in a year. At the same time, the number of credit cards in the country has increased by 10,51,549 last year. In June 2022, the number of credit cards in the country increased to 37,52.891 against 27,01342 in June 2021. Besides, people borrowed Tk 1.20 billion more from credit cards in June compared to May this year.

Source: https://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade-market/credit-card-spending-soars-with-increasing-living-costs-bb-1660406634

Agent banking accounts keep growing

Transactions through agent banking accounts rose 43 per cent year-on-year to Tk 5,64,844 crore in fiscal year 2021-22 as a growing number of people are now using the new banking window, showed Bangladesh Bank data. In fiscal year 2020-21, the amount passing through these accounts, opened through agent banking services, stood at Tk 3,94,068 crore. However, the growth of the transaction amount from what was in fiscal year 2019-20 to that in fiscal year 2020-21 was 106 per cent. The number of agents across the country stood at 14,300 as of June 2022, which was 12,930 in the same month of the previous year. The number of agent banking outlets rose to 19,738 from 17,147 during the period.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/news/agent-banking-accounts-keep-growing-3094441