BB to unveil monetary policy for H2 Wednesday

Bangladesh Bank (BB) will unveil the Monetary
Policy Statement (MPS) for the second half (H2) of fiscal 2018-19 at its
headquarters in the capital on Wednesday.

Governor of the central bank Fazle Kabir will formally unveil the
monetary policy at a press briefing at 11:30 am, a BB press release said.

A senior official of the central bank said ensuring the quality of credit
to achieve the maximum economic growth by the end of this fiscal gets top
priority in the MPS.

On July 31, 2018, Bangladesh Bank announced its MPS for the first half
(H1) of fiscal 2018-19 maintaining its growth oriented stance, which was also
projected in the outgoing fiscal.

The MPS set growth ceilings of the private sector credit growth at 16.8
percent, domestic credit growth at 15.9 percent and broad money at 12 percent
respectively, while the public sector credit growth is 10.4 percent.

In the MPS, the BB decided to maintain the policy rates at their current
levels with repo and reverse repo rates at 6 and 4.75 percent respectively
for balancing the inflation and output risks to improve liquidity conditions
and moderate food inflation.