Bangladesh Bank governor Ahsan H Mansur on Thursday called upon businesses to maintain compliance anyhow.
鈥楾he central bank has taken a number of initiatives to control the overall inflation and hopes that the positive impact will be reflected in the market soon,鈥� he said.
The governor said this while meeting with members of board of directors of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led by its president Taskeen Ahmed, at BB headquarters, said a press release.
Mansur said that the banks had been directed to open letters of credit without any margin to keep the prices of goods stable during the upcoming Ramadan, especially during the import of essential goods.
He said that currently there was no crisis of dollars on the market, and the price was quite stable, but the central bank would not determine the value of the dollar; rather, value would be determined based on the supply and demand of this currency.
鈥楤ut we are very cautious about the stability of dollar price on the market and our strong monitoring in the market will continue,鈥� the governor said. 鈥業f the inflation falls down to around 7 per cent in June-July this year, bank interest rates will fall further on the market basis,鈥� he added.
During the meeting, Taskeen Ahmed suggested keeping the bank interest rates a little bit lower in the prevailing situation to help the private sector credit flow to grow and boost private investment.
He said that a cottage, micro, small and medium enterprise entrepreneur had to provide at least 31 documents to get the benefit from credit guarantee scheme and for these reasons small entrepreneurs sometimes were deprived or lost hope of getting credit facilities.
The Dhaka chamber president also requested the central bank to extend the deadline for the loan classification period for at least 3-6 months, considering the current situation of the country鈥檚 economy, so that the businessmen can accommodate economic adjustments and ensure smoother repayment capabilities.
He also requested the governor to relax the existing stringent policies for setting up overseas business offices to some extent, which would ultimately expedite export and investment.
Taskeen Ahmed later proposed to increase the accountability of the central bank as well while ensuring transparency and accountability of the country鈥檚 overall financial sector.
DCCI senior vice-president Razeev H Chowdhury, vice-president Md. Salem Sulaiman and high officials of the Bangladesh Bank were also present during the meeting.
