Savings certificates worth around Tk 6.25 billion has been sold in the first month of the current fiscal — nearly the amount sold in the whole of 2012-13 fiscal.Economists say the prolonged slump in the capital market and a decrease in the deposit rates in the banks have encouraged investors to turn to savings certificates.
According to figures provided by National Savings Directorate (NSD) of Bangladesh, various types of certificates worth around Tk 7.73 bln was sold in the previous fiscal of which Tk 2.09 bln was in July alone.
Sale of savings certificates was around Tk 4.79 bln in the 2011-12 fiscal.
Research Director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Zaid Bakht, believes this reflects the trend of ‘safe investments’.
The large amount of idle money in banks has resulted in decreasing deposit interest rates and that was also boosting savings certificate sales, he said.
“People are not willing to take risks thanks to the capital market debacle and various financial scams like the Hall-Mark one,” Bakht told bdnews24.com
“I believe that’s why the sale in savings certificate has increased,” he said.
An NSD official told bdnews24.com that nearly 80 percent of the bonds sold in July this year were family savings certificates.
The government had decided to borrow Tk 74 bln from bonds sales to meet last fiscal’s budget deficit. Later, the amount was revised to Tk 19.73 bln.
However, the government failed to take the loan since the net amount of sale of savings certificates in 2012-13 fiscal was nearly Tk 7.73 bln.
In the 2013-14 fiscal, the government plans to borrow Tk 49.71 bln from the sale of bonds.
According to the NSD, various types of savings certificates worth around Tk 233.26 bln was sold in the last fiscal. Around Tk 225.53 bln was refunded to customers on maturity of certificates sold earlier and the net accrual stood at around Tk 7.73 bln.
In the last fiscal, bond sales were at its peak in January, at Tk 23.24 bln while it was at its lowest in December at Tk 16.46 bln.
However, the sales was in the negative in September-December last year and April this year (in the 2012-13 fiscal) as the government had to payback more to the customers compared to the amount received through sales.
In the 2009-10 fiscal, savings certificates worth Tk 115.9 bln was sold. – bdnews24.com
