Banking & Commodity

Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Tuesday extended banking hour by one and a half hour to 2:30pm to facilitate transactions by diverse groups including the businesses.

The government has allowed e-commerce providers to deliver food items, books, electronic gadgets and dresses to customer’s doorsteps adopting proper safety measures. 

Fresh borrowers will have to pay interest on all kinds of loans as usual for April and May, according to a Bangladesh Bank, or BB, notice on Monday.

The inflow of remittance in April was also down by 16.01% from the previous month Remittance inflow declined by 24.68% year-on-year to $1.08 billion in April as coronavirus pandemic took the toll.

Bangladesh Bank issues a circular suspending the interest on all types of loans for April and May Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the government has decided that two months will be declared as zero interest months for the borrowers. 

Foreign owned or controlled companies operating in Bangladesh irrespective of sectors may access short-term working capital loans, for the tenure of one year extendable to another one year, from their parent companies or shareholders abroad

Unscrupulous wholesale or retail traders who tried to capitalize on the situation and raise prices were often fined Prices of essential commodities at kitchen markets in the capital fell due to strong monitoring by law enforcement agencies and government measures to protect consumer rights.

Millions of small businesses, mainly clothing traders, are facing up to the uncertain times as they are missing key high-demand periods – the Eid-ul-Fitr after Pahela Baishakh festival – amid the coronavirus-driven lockdowns.

Credit cards were slowly but surely finding a place in consumers’ hearts in recent years, thanks to a combination of banks’ aggressive push, a growing aspirational middle-class population and increasing awareness of the convenience the payment tool provides.

South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem) has called giving farmers for interest-free loan, rather than a 4 percent interest loan for them.