Business
Importers press for soybean price hike by Tk 20 per litre
The Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vegetable Manufacturers Association (BVORVMA), an association of owners of edible oil refining and marketing companies, has urged the government to hike prices of soybean oil by Tk 20 per litre.
The BVORVMA gave this proposal to the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) on August 3.
The proposal stated that the price of open (loose) soybean oil be raised to Tk 180 a litre, Tk 205 a litre of bottled soybean and Tk 960 for five-litre bottle.
Mustafa Abid Khan, a former member of the Tariff Commission, told UNB that when the price of edible oil was earlier adjusted, the dollar price was taken into consideration. As much of the price in the world market fell, the price in the country did not fall accordingly.
Read: Soybean oil price cut by Tk14 per litre
He said, now the proposal can be reviewed. However, it should be kept in mind that people are under pressure due to the increase in the prices of commodities. The increase in fuel prices will further increase the pressure, he said.
Along with the price hike proposal, the BVORVMA has also provided a breakdown of the cost.
NBR supports Made in Bangladesh brand: Chairman
The National Board of Revenue is supporting growth of local industries to promote economic development and create more jobs, said its chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem on Sunday.
He was speaking at a press conference at the NBR Bhaban, to highlight the contribution of the revenue board to the national development.
Through policy measures and tax incentives, NBR is encouraging ‘Made in Bangladesh’ along with the expansion of domestic industries and employment, he said.
This will be continued even if some particular sectors are getting 10 years tax holiday facility, he said.
Also read: NBR dreams to cross revenue Tk3.0 lakh crore in FY 22
Now, the revenue board earns 33 per cent of revenue from income tax, 38 per cent from Value Added Tax (VAT), and 28 per cent from import duty excise duty.
“We are planning to extent tax net and VAT collection areas along with monitoring its submission to the treasury,” Muneem said.
The NBR is achieveing 7 per cent growth in revenue collection. The country’s GDP size has become Tk4,449,919 crore in FY2022-23, a rise by 556 per cent compared to Tk 797,538 crore in FY2009-10, he said.
The NBR Chairman said that NBR achieved satisfactory growth in the revenue collection in FY 22, with collection of Tk3.16 lakh crore.
Also read: NBR to install 10,000 EFD to prevent VAT evasion
In FY-11 (2010-11) the NBR’s revenue collection was Tk79403 crore which now stands at Tk 3.16 lakh crore. This jump in revenue earning contributed to implementing the annual development program (ADP). At the same time it helped cut dependency on foreign loans, Muneem said.
At present, NBR is supporting 85 per cent of the budget from internal resources. Both the ADP size and foreign dependency on ADP implementation came down over the years as the impact of people's contribution to revenue, he said.
In FY2010-11 the size of ADP was Tk35,880 crore which now climbed to Tk 217175 crore in FY 2021-22. Similarly, the contribution of revenue increased in ADP implementation and the ratio of foreign loans in the ADP implementation decreased, the NBR chief said.
NBR members and senior revenue officials were present at the press conference.
Ohsogo.com officially launched
ohsogo.com, a new Bangladeshi e-commerce site of international beauty and personal care products, was recently launched at a Dhaka hotel.
ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak was the chief guest at the launching ceremony.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tahsan, Mehjabeen, Nirob; social media influencer and beauty bloggers Ashfi Onadi, Linda, Barisha Haque, Ishaya; and hair stylist Kamrul were also present.
Read Commerce Ministry launches digital business ID for e-commerce sector
"The current growth of the Bangladesh's economy, especially in the skin and personal care industry, and the investment-friendly environment of the government inspired us to invest in ohsogo.com," Rishika Chanda, managing director of Venturi Partners, one of the investors of ohsogo.com, said.
Ohsogo.com CEO Zahidul Islam said: "Like other countries of the world, there is a huge demand for beauty and personal care products in our country. But our customers are not always getting authentic international products even paying high prices. Ohsogo.com has brought 100 percent authentic products."
Ohsogo.com was unofficially launched in April 2022.
Read BFIU summons bank accounts update of 30 e-commerce companies
US-Bangla resumes Dhaka-Bangkok flights September 1
Private carrier US-Bangla Airlines will resume its flights on the Dhaka-Bangkok-Dhaka on September 1.
Except for Mondays and Wednesdays, the airline will operate flights on this route, route five days a week, Md Kamrul Islam, general manager (public relations) of the US-Bangla, said Saturday.
The flights will leave Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 10:10am and will land at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport at 1:40pm (local time).
Read: US-Bangla to operate international flights on four routes from Saturday
The return flights will leave Bangkok at 2:40pm (local time) on the same day and arrive in Dhaka at 4:20pm.
US-Bangla flights on the Dhaka-Bangkok-Dhaka route were grounded due to Covid-19.
Apart from operating flights on all domestic routes, US-Bangla now runs flights to Singapore, Chennai, Male, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Sharjah, Dubai, Muscat and Kolkata.
Read US-Bangla resumes Chattogram-Kolkata flights September 1
Jack scales up share in Bangladesh with 'high-quality machinery, competitive pricing'
Chinese sewing machine brand Jack Technology has become a "leading technology provider" in the Bangladesh readymade garment (RMG) industry with its "innovative machinery and total technology solutions."
In Bangladesh, the second largest garment exporter in the world, more local apparel manufacturers are now looking for the perfect solutions to intensify or maximise productivity.
So, the demand for state-of-the-art machinery and automation technology has increased, Jack said at a seminar organised by it in Dhaka Saturday.
The Chinese brand held the "Strategic Benchmarking" seminar for the local importers and marketing officials to improve its development strategy and expand brand influence.
In RMG, the right sewing machine can be the game changer with its impact on productivity, efficiency and quality. And Jack deals in machines that include automatic, energy-saving as well as labour-saving ones.
Jack Bangladesh has understood the needs of the country's apparel industry, which are automation, power saving, and high productivity. The Chinese brand has expanded its business here with its new line of machinery, automatic features, total technology solutions, competitive pricing; high-quality, and energy-saving machines.
Jack Technology was set up on August 7, 2003, in Taizhou, Zhejiang, China. It started the sewing machine business on July 18, 1995.
Read: RMG export growth to be affected by fuel price hike: BGMEA President
Since 2010, the company claimed to have had an absolute advantage in the lockstitch, overlock, and interlock sewing machine market.
RMG export growth to be affected by fuel price hike: BGMEA President
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has expressed concern over the hike in fuel price saying it will have impact on export growth.
BGMEA President Faruque Hassan told UNB on Saturday that many garment industries will suffer losses and a number of them may face risk of shutting down.
“The export earning target set for this year unlikely to be achieved thanks to hike in fuel price. Garment owners will count loss for already received orders and many factories won’t be able to go for new production. As a result, the export target will not be achieved,” he said.
He said there is gas supply crisis in the factories and those are experiencing load shedding for 5-6 hours as per the government decision to save energy. In this situation, the increase in fuel price is a big challenge for the garment sector, he added.
Read: Bangladesh to stay safe, sustainable apparel sourcing destination: BGMEA
As prices of fuel have increased, transport fare and prices of goods will increase, said the BGMEA president adding the salary of the workers should also be increased and then there will be no other option other than closing down many factories.
In an abrupt move, the government increased the prices of diesel, octane and petrol by 42.5 percent, 51.7 percent and 51 percent respectively Friday night. Currently, diesel is being sold at Tk 114 per litre, octane at Tk 135 per litre and petrol at Tk 130 per litre.
Islami Bank recognised for digital services
The Bangladesh Bank has recognised the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) for its digital services.
The IBBL operated a digital smart payment booth at Gabtoli cattle market under the "Smart Bangladesh Smart Haat" project of the Bangladesh Bank and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).
Read: IBBL awarded as highest taxpayer
DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam handed over a crest to AFM Kamaluddin, deputy managing director of the IBBL, Wednesday in Dhaka.
Md Khurshid Alam, executive director, Shah Zia Ul Haque, additional director of the Bangladesh Bank; Mohammad Manzurul Haque, senior vice-president of the IBBL, were also present.
How do we know when a recession has begun?
The U.S. economy has contracted for two straight quarters, intensifying fears that the nation is on the cusp of a recession — if not already in one — barely two years after the pandemic recession officially ended.
Six months of contraction is a long-held informal definition of a recession. Yet nothing is simple in the post-pandemic economy. Its direction has confounded Federal Reserve policymakers and many private economists since growth screeched to a halt in March 2020 as COVID-19 struck and 20 million Americans were suddenly thrown out of work.
One sector of the economy that has remained defiantly buoyant is the jobs market and on Friday, the Labor Department will release monthly employment data that most economists believe will show that hiring, too, has begun to cool.
That would be a sizeable shift in an era that may be remembered for having so many unfilled jobs that there were two available for every American who didn’t have one.
Even as the economy shrank over the first half of this year, employers added 2.7 million jobs — more than in most entire years before the pandemic struck. And the unemployment rate has sunk to 3.6%, near a half-century low. Robust hiring and exceedingly low unemployment aren’t consistent with a recession.
While most economists — and Fed Chair Jerome Powell — have said they don’t think the economy is in recession, many increasingly expect an economic downturn to begin later this year or next.
Either way, with inflation raging at its highest level in four decades, Americans’ purchasing power is eroding. The pain is being felt disproportionately by lower-income and Black and Hispanic households, many of whom are struggling to pay for higher-cost essentials like food, gas and rent. Compounding those pressures, the Fed is jacking up interest rates at the fastest pace since the early 1980s, thereby magnifying borrowing costs for homes and cars and credit card purchases.
Read: Inflation hits record 8.9% in euro area, but economy grows
As a result, regardless of whether a recession has officially begun, Americans have increasingly soured on the economy,
So how, exactly, do we know when an economy is in recession? Here are some answers to such questions:
WHO DECIDES WHEN A RECESSION HAS STARTED?
Recessions are officially declared by the obscure-sounding National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of economists whose Business Cycle Dating Committee defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.”
The committee considers trends in hiring as a key measure in determining recessions. It also assesses many other data points, including gauges of income, employment, inflation-adjusted spending, retail sales and factory output. It puts heavy weight on jobs and a gauge of inflation-adjusted income that excludes government support payments such as Social Security.
Yet the NBER typically doesn’t declare a recession until well after one has begun, sometimes for up to a year. Economists consider a half-point rise in the unemployment rate, averaged over several months, as the most historically reliable sign of a downturn.
DO TWO STRAIGHT QUARTERS OF ECONOMIC CONTRACTION EQUAL A RECESSION?
That’s a common rule of thumb, but it isn’t an official definition.
Still, in the past, it has been a useful measure. Michael Strain, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, notes that in each of the past 10 times that the economy shrank for two consecutive quarters, a recession has resulted.
Still, even Strain isn’t sure we’re in recession now. Like many economists, he notes that the underlying drivers of the economy — consumer spending, business investment, home purchases — all grew in the first quarter.
Overall gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the nation’s output — declined at a 1.6% annual rate from January through March because of one-off factors, including a sharp jump in imports and a post-holiday season drop in businesses’ inventories. Many economists expect that when GDP is revised later this year, the first quarter may even turn out to be positive.
“The basic story is that the economy is growing but still slowing, and that slowdown really accelerated in the second quarter,” Strain said.
DON’T A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK A RECESSION IS COMING?
Yes, because many people now feel more financially burdened. With wage gains trailing inflation for most people, higher prices for such essentials as gas, food, and rent have eroded Americans’ spending power,
This week, Walmart reported that higher gas and food costs have forced its shoppers to reduce their purchases of discretionary spending such as new clothing, a clear sign that consumer spending, a key driver of the economy, is weakening. The nation’s largest retailer, Walmart reduced its profit outlook and said it will have to discount more items like furniture and electronics.
Read: India's Mukesh Ambani kickstarts dynastic succession
And the Fed’s rate hikes have caused average mortgage rates to double from a year ago, to 5.5%, causing a sharp fall in home sales and construction.
Higher rates will also likely weigh on businesses’ willingness to invest in new buildings, machinery and other equipment. If companies reduce spending and investment, they’ll also start to slow hiring. Rising caution among companies about spending freely could lead eventually to layoffs. If the economy were to lose jobs and the public were to grow more fearful, consumers would further reduce spending.
The Fed’s rapid rate hikes have raised the likelihood of recession in the next two years to nearly 50%, Goldman Sachs economists have said. And Bank of America economists now forecast a “mild” recession later this year, while Deutsche Bank expects a recession early next year.
WHAT ARE SOME SIGNS OF AN IMPENDING RECESSION?
The clearest signal that a recession is under way, economists say, would be a steady rise in job losses and a surge in unemployment. In the past, an increase in the unemployment rate of three-tenths of a percentage point, on average over the previous three months, has meant that a recession will soon follow.
Many economists monitor the number of people who seek unemployment benefits each week, which indicates whether layoffs are worsening. Weekly applications for jobless aid, averaged over the past four weeks, have risen for eight straight weeks to nearly 250,000, the highest level since last November. While that is a potentially concerning sign, it is still a low level historically.
ANY OTHER SIGNALS TO WATCH FOR?
Many economists also monitor changes in the interest payments, or yields, on different bonds for a recession signal known as an “inverted yield curve.” This occurs when the yield on the 10-year Treasury falls below the yield on a short-term Treasury, such as the 3-month T-bill. That is unusual. Normally, longer-term bonds pay investors a richer yield in exchange for tying up their money for a longer period.
Inverted yield curves generally mean that investors foresee a recession that will compel the Fed to slash rates. Inverted curves often predate recessions. Still, it can take 18 to 24 months for a downturn to arrive after the yield curve inverts.
For the past two weeks, the yield on the two-year Treasury has exceeded the 10-year yield, suggesting that markets expect a recession soon. Many analysts say, though, that comparing the 3-month yield to the 10-year has a better recession-forecasting track record. Those rates are not inverted now.
WILL THE FED KEEP RAISING RATES EVEN AS THE ECONOMY SLOWS?
The economy’s flashing signals — slowing growth with strong hiring — have put the Fed in a tough spot. Chair Jerome Powell is aiming for a “soft landing,” in which the economy weakens enough to slow hiring and wage growth without causing a recession and brings inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target.
But Powell has acknowledged that such an outcome has grown more difficult to achieve. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s COVID-19 lockdowns have driven up prices for energy food, and many manufactured parts in the U.S.
Powell has also indicated that if necessary, the Fed will keep raising rates even amid a weak economy if that’s what’s needed to tame inflation.
“Is there a risk that we would go too far?” Powell asked last month. “Certainly there’s a risk, but I wouldn’t agree that’s the biggest risk to the economy. The biggest mistake to make…would be to fail to restore price stability.”
US stocks remain mixed amid earnings, economic updates
Stocks were mixed in morning trading on Wall Street Thursday as investors continued to review the latest updates on the economy and corporate earnings.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 10:16 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.2%, to 32,760 and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.
Oil prices edged lower and weighed on energy stocks. Exxon Mobil fell 1.8%. A mix of retailers and industrial companies made solid gains. Best Buy rose 1.9% and Deere rose 1.6%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.69% from 2.74% late Wednesday.
Read: Asian stocks higher as US-China tensions rise
Stocks have meandered week, leaving major indexes mostly higher. August’s gain follows a standout July that was the S&P 500′s best month since late 2020. But markets remain volatile as investors try to determine the economy’s path ahead amid the highest inflation in four decades and efforts from central banks to fight higher prices.
Earnings remain in focus on Wall Street as investors look for more clues on how inflation is impacting various industries. Twinkie maker Hostess fell 5% after giving investors a disappointing profit forecast for the year. Bleach and consumer products maker Clorox fell 4.2% after also announcing a weak earnings forecast.
47 individuals, enterprises get Walton 'Branding Heroes Award'
Walton has honoured 47 individuals and enterprises with the "Branding Heroes Award" as recognition of their contribution to the company's sales growth through creative branding at the grassroots levels under digital campaigns.
Also read: Walton brings interactive display with 4K resolution
Twenty-one Walton and Marcel distributors and Walton Plazas were awarded for their contribution to the sales growth. Also, 26 employees were honoured in different categories for their outstanding performance in branding activities, sales, sales growth, collection, collection growth and receivable growth.
Walton Hi-Tech Managing Director and CEO Golam Murshed handed over the crests, certificates and crowns to the "Branding Heroes" awardees of Walton and Marcel brands in Dhaka Wednesday, according to a media statement.
Also read: Walton CEO asks co-workers to save electricity