Business

MNA Business Desk: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to lend US$50 million to help Bangladesh promote microenterprise led by women, finance ministry officials said. The fund will be channelled through Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF). The state-run top financier for micro-lenders will then distribute the funds among small enterprises through its partner organisations (POs). The interest rate on loans will be determined in line with the ADB’s London interbank offered rate (LIBOR)-based lending facility. A commitment charge of 0.15 per cent per annum will be levied, reported news agency. The ADB will provide a credit line to PKSF’s ...

MNA Business Desk: Net inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by 4.20 per cent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, reported news agency. Latest statistics, released by the central bank last week, showed that the net inflow of FDI stood at $1.46 billion in July-April period of FY18, while it was $1.52 billion in the same period of FY17. The data also showed that gross inflow of FDI stood at $2.37 billion in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, which was $2.55 billion in the same period of the past fiscal year. ...

MNA Business Desk: The US President Donald Trump on Friday announced fresh tariffs targeting tens of billions in Chinese imports, reported news agency. The new tariff will sparking immediate retaliation from Beijing and bringing the world’s two largest economies to the brink of an all-out trade war feared by markets and industry. Making good on a pledge to punish the alleged theft of American intellectual property, Trump warned in a statement of “additional tariffs” if China hits back with tit-for-tat duties on American goods and services exports. At least initially, though, the new tariffs will not cover the full $50 ...

MNA Business Desk: The National Board of Revenue or NBR has brushed aside as rumours social media posts claiming the government has imposed Value Added Tax (VAT) on the money sent by Bangladeshi expatriates. It clarified in a media release on Wednesday that no such tax has been levied in the budget proposed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith for 2018-19 financial year.  “This is utterly false and nothing but rumour. The NBR thinks the propaganda aims at stopping the flow of remittance through legal channels and encouraging the expatriates to use Hundi,” the release says. Money sent by the expatriates ...

MNA Business Desk: The World Bank (WB) is likely to provide a grant of US$ 400 million for the rehabilitation of Rohingya refugees within next two years, reported news agency. The Washington-based international financial institution has backtracked from its earlier stance on providing the loan for the Rohingyas as the Government of Bangladesh raised its reservations about the credit, they said. “The WB has formally agreed to provide the grant for the Rohingyas,” said Kazi Shofiqul Azam, Secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD). They have recently completed a mission to explore the potential of support, he told the FE. ...

MNA Business Desk: Europe will implement counter-measures against US tariffs on steel and aluminum just like Canada, German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, voicing regret about president Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw support for a G7 communiqué. Trump’s announcement on Twitter, after leaving the Group of Seven summit in Canada early, that he was backing out of the joint communiqué torpedoed what appeared to be a fragile consensus on a trade dispute between Washington and its top allies. “The withdrawal, so to speak, via tweet is of course … sobering and a bit depressing,” Merkel said in an ...

MNA Business Desk: Claiming the VAT on online marketing a print mistake, National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Friday said no VAT will be imposed on online shopping. He made the comment at a post-budget news conference held at Osmani auditorium in Dhaka. NBR chief said five percent VAT on online shopping will not be implemented. Social media including Facebook, Google have to pay as per the income, he added. Prime Minister’s Finance Advisor Mashiur Rahman, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, State Minister of Finance ...

MNA Business Desk: The cabinet approved the national budget of around Tk 4.64 trillion for the fiscal year 2018-19 on Thursday afternoon, reported news agency. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the special meeting of the cabinet held at the parliament complex. Finance Minister AMA Muhith placing the national budget for the 2018-19 fiscal in parliament with all the indicators pointing to another expansionary budget in keeping with the AL government’s previous budgets. The figure is an increase of 25 percent from the revised budget and more than 16 percent higher than the original budget of the outgoing fiscal year. ...

MNA Business Desk: Country’s export earnings in the first eleven months (July-May) of the current fiscal year (FY2018-19) witnessed a 6.66 percent growth fetching $3372.88 crore buoyed by the good performance of garment, jute and jute-made goods and agricultural products. The single-month export performance for May was 9 percent higher with $332.24 crore. Export earning in May of last fiscal year (FY17) was $304.76 crore, reported news agency. According to the figures of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) for the July-May period of the current fiscal, knitwear export maintained its positive trend fetching $1, 398.11 crore, which showed a 11.48 percent ...

MNA Business Desk: US-imposed trade tariffs on its close allies could have a “grave impact” on ties and the world trading system, the Japanese government said Monday, describing the situation as “extremely deplorable”. Washington found itself isolated at a weekend meeting of G7 finance ministers over its stinging steel and aluminium tariffs and Tokyo kept up the barrage in unusually strong language, reported news agency. “It is extremely deplorable that the situation has not improved even after Japan has explained to the US its concerns at various levels,” said government spokesman Yoshihide Suga. Close allies Tokyo and Washington have been ...

MNA Business Desk: Finance leaders of the closest US allies vented anger over the Trump administration’s metal import tariffs on Saturday, ending a three-day meeting with a stern rebuke of Washington and setting up a heated fight at a G7 summit next week in Quebec. In a rare show of division among the normally harmonious club of wealthy nations, the six other G7 member countries issued a statement asking US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to convey their “unanimous concern and disappointment” about the tariffs to President Donald Trump. The 25 percent steel and 10 percent aluminium tariffs were imposed this ...

MNA Business Desk: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for equal access at sea and in the air for all Asian countries at a major defence conference on Friday, but avoided singling out China’s claims to the hotly contested South China Sea. Modi outlined his regional vision at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, attended by defence chiefs from over 40 countries, including US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The Indian leader’s visit to Southeast Asia, which he described as the centre of a new era of cooperation in a region that spanned the coast of Africa to the US West ...

MNA  Business Desk: A pavilion was inaugurated on Wednesday at Interior Life-style Fair at the Big Site of Tokyo in Japan to showcase Bangladeshi jute products, reported news agency. Chairman to the parliamentary standing committee on textiles and jute Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Bangladesh ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatima and Export Promotion Bureau vice chairman Bijoy Bhattachariya inaugurated the pavilion. A total of 10 jute business organisations are taking part in the fair where they are showcasing different items of jute products including jute bag, said an official release here. The Bangladeshi businessmen expressed their hope to create a Bangladesh-made jute ...

MNA Business Desk: Bangladesh Bank (BB) will release new currency notes of Taka 10, 20, 50 and Taka 100 denominations in the market from June 3 ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr. The new notes will be distributed from all branches of Bangladesh Bank across the country every day until June 14, said a press release. The notes will also be distributed from Jatrabari Branch of the National Bank, Abdul Ghoni Road Corporate Branch of the Janata Bank, Elephant Road Branch of Agrani Bank, Mirpur Branch of the City Bank, Kawran Bazar Branch of the South East Bank, Bashundhara City (Panthapath) Branch of ...

MNA Business Desk: Nepal and Bangladesh will discuss trade facilitation and elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers at the fourth commerce secretary-level trade talks scheduled to begin on May 30.  Nepal plans to ask Bangladesh to address hurdles to exporting acrylic yarn to Bangladesh, quoting Nepal based Kathmandu Post, reports news agency. Harmonising sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and reviewing the list of 108 Nepali products, that have duty free access to the Bangladesh market, will also be a part of the discussion. An eleven-member Bangladeshi delegation would be arriving in Kathmandu to participate in the two-day meeting. Nepal’s Ministry ...

MNA Business Desk: Pakistan expects to obtain fresh Chinese loans worth $1-2 billion to help it avert a balance of payments crisis, Pakistani government sources said, in another sign of Islamabad’s growing reliance on Beijing for financial support. Lending to Pakistan by China and its banks is on track to hit $5 billion in the fiscal year ending in June, according to recent disclosures by officials and Pakistan finance ministry data reviewed by Reuters. The ramp up in China’s lending comes as the United States is cutting aid to Pakistan following a fracture in relations between the on-off allies. In ...

MNA Business Desk: China announced that it would cut tariffs on auto imports from July 1, the latest sign of a thaw in trade frictions with the United States. Beijing has announced a flurry of liberalisations and reforms since coming under fire from the Trump administration and some European politicians for its protectionist policies. The planned reduction in import duties from 25 percent to 15 percent is a boon for international carmakers keen to grow sales in the world’s largest auto market but may fall short of fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s expectations that Beijing match US tariffs of 2.5 ...

MNA Business Desk: US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the US was temporarily suspending tariffs on Chinese products after an agreement was reached to reduce the bilateral trade deficit. “We are putting the trade war on hold,” Mnuchin said on Sunday in a “Fox News Sunday” television interview. “Right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework.” In recent weeks, president Donald Trump had threatened to slap tariffs on as much as $150 billion worth of Chinese imports to force changes in China’s trade practices, to which Beijing responded by ...

MNA Business Desk: The eurozone has recorded a 26.9 billion euro surplus in trade in goods with the rest of the world in March, declined from 28.5 billion in March 2017, data from Eurostat showed. The first estimate for euro area exports of goods to the rest of the world in March decreased by 2.9 per cent compared with March 2017, while imports from the rest of the world fell by 2.5 per cent compared with March 2017, according to Eurostat, the European Union statistical agency. howevr, intra-euro area trade also fell down by 0.6 per cent compared with March ...

MNA Business Desk: Washington and Beijing have agreed to abandon any trade war and back off from imposing tariffs on each other, reported news agency. The announcement came after high-level talks in the US capital and followed months of tensions over what president Donald Trump has blasted as an unfair commercial relationship between the two economic giants. Vice-premier Liu He, who led Chinese negotiators in Washington said: “The two sides reached a consensus, will not fight a trade war, and will stop increasing tariffs on each other,” state-run news agency Xinhua reported Sunday. Liu called the agreement a “necessity”, but ...

MNA Business Desk: Korean entrepreneurs have shown their keen interest to invest in Bangladesh, saying they will send a trade delegation to Bangladesh soon, reported enw sagency. They expressed their interest at the Bangladesh Investment Seminar jointly organised by Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Bangladesh embassy in South Korea in Seoul, South Korea on Friday. BIDA executive chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam and Bangladesh ambassador to South Korea Abida Islam highlighted the remarkable socio-economic achievements of Bangladesh, including the investment opportunities and the incentives offered by the government of Bangladesh. They pointed out that there are ample untapped areas ...

MNA Business Desk: The Jatiya Sangsad budget session for 2018-19 fiscal year will begin on June 5. It will be the last budget of the incumbent Awami League government. The parliament will go into session at 11:00am on that day with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury in chair. A few hours before the session starts, Working Advisory Committee meeting will fix the schedule of country’s 47th and fifth budget of the current government. however, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith with place the budget proposal for 18-19 fiscal year on June 7. It will be Abdul Muhith’s 12th budget as finance ...

MNA Business Desk: The economical growth of the Euro zone slowed in the first quarter of this year and industrial output in March was weaker than expected, data from the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat has showed. The Eurostat said on Tuesday that its earlier preliminary flash estimate that gross domestic product (GDP in the 19 countries that share the euro rose 0.4 per cent quarter on quarter in the Q1 slowing from 0.7 per cent in the previous quarters. Year-on-year, euro zone GDP grew 2.5 per cent, in line with the preliminary estimate and down from 2.8 per cent ...

MNA Business Desk: Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Saturday said the government is considering slashing corporate tax rate as it is encouraging that the country’s young generation is now showing interests in paying income tax. The minister hinted that the government is planning for introducing double slab of VAT system from the fiscal year 2019-20 instead of 15 percent flat VAT rate. Muhith said this while addressing a ‘Pre Budget Discussion’ as chief guest organized jointly by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI), The Daily Samakal and Chanel 24 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC). The ...

MNA Business Desk: The banking sector in Bangladesh has been plagued by financial scams, non-performing loans and weak monitoring problems, which might cause a macroeconomic risk in the near term, says a UN report. The report says, robust growth has been supported by domestic demand, especially large infrastructure projects and new initiatives in the energy sector, reported news agency. Remittance flows have also started to increase with the increase in global oil prices, according to the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2018. Mobilising financing for development remains a fundamental priority in the Asia-Pacific region, said the ...

MNA Business Desk: Net inflow of Foreign Direct Investment or FDI from the United States of America (USA) to Bangladesh dropped by 23.50 per cent in 2017. Latest statistics, released by Bangladesh Bank, showed that net inflow of FDI from the US declined to $166.66 million in the past year, which was $217.74 million in 2016. Disinvestment, repayments of loans and losses of the current multination entities have been deducted from the gross inflow of FDI to calculate the net FDI. Gross inflow of FDI from the US also declined by around 26 per cent to $181.49 million in the ...

MNA Business Desk: A two-day long Showcase Canada 2018 (Trade and Education Fair) begins May 6 at International Convention City Bashundhara, Dhaka. The event is supported by the High Commission of Canada to Bangladesh. “Canada is one of the largest and growing trade partners of Bangladesh having two-way trade of C$2.50 billion of which more than C$1 billion is RMG export. Our next target is to take the total trade to C$3 billion by 2021,” a statement of CanCham said. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, MP, will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest and inaugurate the Fair, the 4th of ...