Bangladesh Bank’s upcoming Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) for the first half (July-December) of 2017-18 fiscal will focus on boosting private sector investment as well as containing inflation, economists and BB former governors have projected.

BB Governor Fazle Kabir will announce the second monetary policy for the year and first one for the new fiscal year on July 25.

The main objective of monetary policy will be to maintain the price stability and supporting stable credit growth, keeping inflation low and boost job creation, bankers and economists have said.

Former BB Governor Atiur Rahman observed that issues like refinancing schemes, inflation and exchange rate of the local currency against the dollar will also get prioritised in the upcoming monetary policy.

“We have experienced huge damage in natural calamities in last several months. The central bank will focus on refinancing programme for rehabilitation of the victims.Keeping the inflation rate and value of the local currency against dollar stable will be two major challenges for the upcoming policy,” Prof Atiur Rahman said while talking to daily sun on Thursday.

He also mentioned that the sluggish remittance flow is not only a national crisis but also an impact of global unrest related to the Middle East.

Analysts have stressed the need for adopting specialised schemes to utilise the idle money in banks in trade investment for generating new jobs to boost the economy.

Former BB governor Salehuddin Ahmed underscored the need for boosting the credit flow for developing a more stable socioeconomic structure.

Eminent banker Salehuddin Ahmed said the monetary policy will come up with specific schemes for utilising internal capital for trade expansion as the flow of foreign fund is in a downward trend.“BB will need to support larger credit flow to productive sectors and ensure affordable inflation. We are experiencing sluggish employment generation and investment in the country. Apart from these, the monetary policy will outline the measures for recovering from the fall in remittance flow,” Salehuddin Ahmed told daily sun.

The central bank officials sit with the economists and relevant experts on July 6 and hosted a consultation with former governors, deputy governors from July 8 to collect feedbacks and opinions for finalising the monetary policy.

“We have observed that the inflation rate is higher than the bank’s real interest rate which is below 5 percent. People have lost interest in depositing money in banks because of the imbalance in interest and inflation. So the main challenges for the central bank will be to keep the inflation stable in the next six month,” CPD Distinguished fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman told daily sun.