The members of the IMF Mission presented several research papers on lending rates in Bangladesh, trade elasticity, inflation and economic activities in Bangladesh on March 9, 2015 at Bangladesh Bank Head Office. Chief Economist’s Unit of Bangladesh Bank organized the seminar. Mr. Souvik Gupta and Mr. Sohrab Rafiq of the IMF mission presented the papers.Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman, Deputy Governors Md. Abul Quasem, Shitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury, Nazneen Sultana, Change Management Advisor Md. Allah Malik Kazemi, Chief Economist Dr. Biru Paksha Paul, Executive Directors Md. Ahsan Ullah, S. M. Moniruzzaman, Economic Advisor Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman and IMF Mission members led by the Mission Chief Mr. Rodrigo Cubero and Ms. Stella Kaendera, Bangladesh Resident Representative of IMF, were present in the seminar. Bangladesh Bank officials from different departments participated the occasion.
The papers analyzed export and import elasticities, trends in core inflation vis-a-vis headline inflation, tracking economic activities via coincident indicators, and interest rate spread behavior in Bangladesh in the global context. The findings of the papers highlighted number of points:
1) Inflation of nonperforming loans should be reduced to lower lending rates.
2) An index of coincident indicators should be developed to understand national output at quaterly frequency.
3) The exchange rate affects our export performance.
Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman underscored the importance of such seminars. Dr. Rahman hoped that such seminars would continue in the future so that our researchers can be motivated to carry out high quality research for policymaking. He thanked to the IMF mission and the participants for lively interactions. The Governor also welcomed the initiatives of the Chief Economist Unit to arrange an international research conference in December 2015. – BB press release
