Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali on Wednesday expressed hope that the current pressure of inflation will ease to a bearable level by the end of the current financial year.

The finance minister expressed this hope while presenting the budget implementation progress report for the first quarter ((July-September) of the fiscal year 2023-2024 in the Parliament.

By the end of the current financial year, the expatriate income will also increase and the foreign exchange reserves will quickly return to their previous strong position, the finance minister said.

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Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali said that the country is experiencing significant inflationary pressure due to the increase in the prices of various daily necessities including energy in the international market and the rapid change in foreign exchange rates.

However, the current inflationary pressure is expected to come down to a bearable level by the end of the current fiscal year, he said.

The minister said that the government has taken various initiatives to control inflation.

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He said that in order to take more effective measures, the Bangladesh Bank is moving forward to implement some pragmatic measures involving monetary policy.  

“Interest rates have been hiked several times and loan interest caps have been lifted,” he said.

The finance minister said that the current account balance was positive at the end of the first quarter (July-September) of the current financial year due to increase in exports, decrease in import costs and increase in repatriation income.

However, he said, due to negative growth in the financial account, foreign exchange reserves have decreased as compared with figures on June 30, 2023.

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The government has already taken various steps to increase foreign exchange reserves, he added.

He expected that the foreign exchange reserves to return to their previous strong position very soon.