Pubali Bank Limited recently shifted its Patia Branch of Chittagong to new premises to provide more enhanced services to its customers.

MA Halim Chowdhury, deputy managing director of the bank, inaugurated the new premises as chief guest. General Manager Md Fazlul Haque was present as special guest. DGM Shyamsundor Banik, regional manager of Pubali Bank Chittagong south region, chaired the inaugural function.

Halim Chowdhury said the bank shifted the branch office as it is committed to provide better and innovative services to its customers at a fastest possible time.

The branch at the new location will serve its customers with highest satisfaction by applying modern technology, he hopped.

Renowned businessmen and local elite were also attended at the function.

News: Daily Sun/ bangladesh/ Jun-05-2011

The country’s foreign currency reserve marked a fall by US$ 1 billion over a year to US$ 10431.23 million as on May 31, although it saw a jump in remittance inflows.

In April this year, the reserve was US$ 11316.44 million, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics released on Thursday.

The fall in foreign exchange reserve was mainly due to higher import payment.

The wage earners’ remittances during the July-April period were $9612.98 million, 4.58 percent higher than the corresponding period of last fiscal. The remittance during July 2009 to April 2010 totalled US$ 9192.20 million.

In April 2011, the inflow of remittance was US$1001.97 million, against US$ 922.16 million in the same month last fiscal, marking a rise by US$ 79.81 million or 8.65 percent.

Revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) for the July-April period was encouraging, growing by nearly 27.07 to stand at Tk 595558.8 million.

The current account balance marked a sharp fall as amounted to $689 million during July 2010 to March 2011 period, compared to $2643.00 million during the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The country saw a significant surge in current transfer during the period because of higher remittance sent by the non-resident Bangladeshis.

The country’s exports maintained a robust growth of 40.88 percent during July 2010-April 2011 period, totaling $18243.24 million against imports amounting to $27453.00 million during the period. This growth was possible mainly because of higher export of apparels, jute and jute goods, and frozen foods.

The data of the central bank shows that during July-April period of this fiscal, the letter of credits (LCs) worth US$ 32641.94 million were opened for import of food grains, capital machinery, petroleum, industrial raw materials, while L/Cs worth $26221.14 million were settled.

Meanwhile, the country’s external trade marked a negative balance of US$ 5570 million during July 2010 to March 2011 period, against a deficit of US$ 3917 million a year ago, although export during the period registered a growth by 40.61 percent to US$ 16.266 billion provided the apparel sector’s lion contribution of US$ 12.567 billion.

The import payments made by the country during July-March, 2010-11 increased by US$6977.20 million to US$24168.20 million compared to US$17191.00 million during July-March, 2009-10, the central bank data showed.

Of the total import payments during the period, imports under cash and for EPZ stood at US$23230.50 million, import under loans and grants US$41.40 million, import under direct investment US$98.00 million and short term loan by BPC US$798.30 million.

In March this year, the import costs stood higher by US$378.30 million or 13.75 percent to US$3130.50 million, against US$2752.20 million in February, 2011. This was also higher by US$776.90 million or 33.01 percent than US$2353.60 million in March, 2010.

The opening of fresh import LCs in March, 2011 stood higher by US$592.66 million or 19.20 percent to US$3679.67 million compared to US$3087.01 million in February, 2011 and also higher by US$1059.27 million or 40.42 percent than US$2620.40 million in the same month of the previous year. Fresh opening of import LCs during July-March, 2010-11 increased by US$9652.77 million or 47.84 percent to US$29829.35 million against US$20176.58 million during July - March, 2009-10.

Source: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/Jun, 04, 2011

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman has expressed optimism about the country's economic outlook and said the GDP growth will cross 7 percent in both current and next fiscal years, thanks to better performances by industrial and services sectors.

The central bank chief said Bangladesh's total external trade is on course to exceed $50 billion in fiscal 2011, a volume nearly half the annual gross domestic product in size.

In an interview with The Daily Star recently, Rahman talked on the overall economic situation on the eve of announcing the national budget for the next fiscal year.

He said the rise in growth (around 40 percent) in external trade and a corresponding boost from the services sector should easily translate into a near double-digit real output in manufacturing and services.

Making an estimate of around 7 percent overall real GDP growth in fiscal 2011 is entirely plausible, the governor said.

He also said most conjectures of various quarters about Bangladesh's likely real GDP growth in fiscal 2011 are putting forward figures somewhat below the 6.7 percent targeted in the budget presumably from caution not to err on the side of over optimism.

Rahman said few dispute the good output performance in agriculture, but most of the forecasts proffer low growth estimates for manufacturing and services, referring to past trends and infrastructure constraints.

The governor said these overlook the progress in remedial efforts and the reality of strong growth in external trade (in both exports and imports).

He said, in the last fiscal year the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in its provisional estimate put the GDP growth at 5.8 percent but the agency has now found it to be 6.04 percent in a final calculation.

In the current fiscal year, the provisional estimate of the BBS is 6.66 percent. But the central bank's forecast is that the GDP growth will cross 7 percent.

The government has already revised the next fiscal year's GDP growth target from an earlier 7 percent to 7.2 percent.

Source: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/Jun, 04, 2011

Bangladesh and Qubee have signed an agreement recently at Santa Western Towner in the city. According to this agreement, Qubee customers with account in HSBC and having personal internet banking service activated can conveniently pay monthly bill by logging into the banks portal or phone banking.
Sanjay Prakash- CEO of HSBC, Bangladesh and Jerry Mobbs, CEO, Qubee signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
Among others, D. S. Faisal Hyder, chief financial officer, Faiyead Ahmedul Hey, head of product, Qubee, Mesbaur Rahman, manager, Corporate Sales and Md Shafquat Hossain, head of Personal Financial Services, Talukdar Noman Anwar, head of Marketing and Communications of HSBC, Bangladesh were also present on the occasion.

Source: The Independent/Bangladesh/Jun, 04, 2011

Bangladesh Bank has fixed the interest rebate on spices at 4 percent, which will come into effect on July 1.

Currently, state banks provide loans in the spices sector at the rate of 2 percent interest. The target of loan disbursement in the current fiscal year was Tk 96 crore, of which 71 percent has already been disbursed in the first 10 months.

Source: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/Jun, 02, 2011