Bangladesh Bank appoints new chief economist

Bangladesh Bank has recently appointed Faisal Ahmed as its chief economist. Ahmed has been serving as the senior economic adviser to the governor of Bangladesh Bank since August 2015. Previously, he was the IMF resident representative in Cambodia during 2011-2015, a senior economist in the Asia and Pacific, Monetary and Capital Markets departments, and a core member of the emerging markets surveillance team at the IMF. Ahmed holds a PhD and an MA in economics from the University of Minnesota, an MFin from Princeton University. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/bb-appoints-new-chief-economist-1393171

FDI slightly up in 2016

The annual inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increased by 4.40 per cent in the last calendar year, according to the latest data released by the central bank on Tuesday. The annual statistics on FDI showed that net inflow of FDI stood at US$ 2.33 billion in 2016 while the amount was $ 2.23 billion in 2015. Usually, net inflow of FDI is derived by deducting the value of disinvestment from the gross inflow of FDI.

Source: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/04/19/67363/FDI-slightly-up-in-2016

BSEC set to seek more easing of Bangladesh Bank rules

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission is going to formally request the central bank to exclude banks’ and non-bank financial institutions’ investments in any open-end mutual fund from the entities’ capital market exposure.
The BSEC has taken the initiative with a view to bringing more funds from banking and financial sectors to the capital market through the open-end mutual funds. The commission is in a process to finalise a proposal in this regard for submission to Bangladesh Bank soon, BSEC officials said. The issue was first raised at a financial sector regulators’ coordination meeting in February this year where the central bank advised the capital market regulator to submit a formal proposal for further consideration. As the Bank Companies Act, 2013 do not allow any bank to invest more than 25.0% of their four heads of capital in the stock market on solo basis, a very few banks have the scope to increase their investments in capital market after their capital market exposure adjustment with the central bank’s policy support in May 2016.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/13771/bsec-set-to-seek-more-easing-of-bb-rules

Economy may grow at 6.9% this year: IMF

Bangladesh’s economy is expected to grow at 6.9% this year, according to a latest report. The growth in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is forecast to be even better to grow at 7.0% next year (2018), said the World Economic Outlook (WEO) released Tuesday by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ahead of the World Bank and IMF’s Spring Meetings that begins in Washington DC on Friday. The WEO projection is, however, not better than the government’s target to achieve it at 7.2% in the current fiscal year, but little better than the latest World Bank’s projection at 6.8%.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/04/19/170338

Moody’s retains Bangladesh Ba3 credit rating

Global credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said it has retained its rating (Ba3) for Bangladesh’s sovereign credit. The country maintained the stable outlook on the ratings, the agency said on Tuesday in its report ‘Global Credit Research-2017’. Moody’s also affirmed Bangladesh’s Ba3 issuer, senior unsecured ratings and NP short-term issuer ratings. The rating is driven by strong growth, macroeconomic stability and access to concessional funding, the report said. According to the report, Bangladesh’s Baa3 local currency bond and deposit ceilings remain unchanged. Ba2 country ceiling for foreign currency debt and B1 country ceiling for FC bank deposits also remain unchanged. Bangladesh’s Ba3 government bond rating is supported by the country’s robust and stable growth performance, a core credit strength, and relatively low government debt burden, the report said. Private consumption is a key contributor to Bangladesh’s economy, accounting for about 70.0% of total GDP.

Source:
http://www.newagebd.net/article/13774/moodys-retains-bdesh-ba3-credit-rating
http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/04/19/170337

Financial reporting framework critical for state enterprises

A comprehensive financial reporting framework for state-owned enterprises (SoEs) and public sector entities (PSEs) is a must to ensure accountability in the use of public resource and money, discussants said at a workshop yesterday. The level of compliance in the government business entities is not encouraging in the absence of any statutory obligations and enforcement mechanism for compliance, they said. All financial transactions of the ministries and their subordinate departments are carried out under a national budget execution system through various accounts offices under the Controller General of Accounts. But the accounting system does not comply with any international accounting or financial reporting standards, they said, while requesting the government to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the International Accounting Standards for the entities.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/financial-reporting-framework-critical-state-enterprises-1393174