Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that remittances and undisclosed money have gone to the country’s stock market. “But no money from government’s stimulus package went to the stock market”, he said while briefing reporters after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday. He made the remarks responding to a question regarding the media report that huge amount of money from stimulus package was diverted to the stock market by a section of business. The government had provided financial support to different sectors under stimulus package to revive business from the shock of the Covid-19 effects. Read: Finance Minister wonders why people moving to Europe risking lives Kamal also defended the government’s position saying that remittance is absolutely owned by the senders. “If any remittance earner or anybody after whitening the undisclosed money invests in the capital market, the government has nothing to do. This is their own choices where to invest their money in legal way”, he said. He also said that the government has no plan to increase the current rate of incentives from 2 per cent on remittances. He said declining trend of inward remittance in July will have no big impact on the economy.  Read: Corruption hurts me as it does others: Finance Minister Replying to another question on the World Bank’s proposal on Rohingya rehabilitation the finance minister said he had no idea about the matter. “If any suggestion comes from the World Bank with due merit to consider, concerned ministries would consider it. But if the suggestion does not carry any merit, they would not consider”, he said.

Insufficient allocation, lengthy procedure, difficulty in bank-related services, and lack of information about the procedure left 68% of businesses unable to avail the government's stimulus package, the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (Sanem) said Sunday. However, effective implementation of the stimulus package is critically important and assessment is urgently required on the package implemented so far. The packages need to be redesigned and expanded amid the current wave of Covid-19, they said. The government should undertake a sectoral approach to gauge the needs and identify the necessary policy measures for the worst affected industries such as leather and tannery, light engineering, transport, retails, restaurants, food processing, they added. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be a priority in channelling the loans and stimulus packages. Also, effective implementation of the stimulus package is critically important. An assessment is urgently required on the stimulus package implemented so far, the experts suggested. Also read: SANEM finds 70% wage-earners in 4 dists. worse off in a year The observations came up at the webinar "Covid-19 and business confidence in Bangladesh: Findings from the 4th round of a nationwide firm-level survey." Sanem, in collaboration with Asia Foundation, initiated the quarterly Business Confidence Survey in July 2020. The third round of the survey was conducted in January and the fourth round in April 2021, which covered 253 firms from the manufacturing sector and 250 from the services sector.  "The sectors that need priority are light engineering, transport, retail, and leather and tannery as their recovery rate is slow. The stimulus packages are having positive impacts on the firms' recovery," Sanem Executive Director Selim Raihan said. Also read: SANEM survey: Population below poverty line doubled, extreme poor trebled in 2020 "The firms, on average, have been able to recover 57% of their damages occurred during this pandemic (March 2020 -March 2021), according to the survey. It shows the firms have not got back to the pre-pandemic situation, and it might take a while for them to be able to do so." Selim said the business confidence for April-June 2021 deteriorated compared to the one during January-March 2021; posing a threat to future businesses. The survey also found that the majority of the stimulus package recipient firms were from the manufacturing sector – 82.7% of all firms. Amongst the industrial sectors, 58% of the RMG firms received the stimulus package, whereas this rate is 40% for the textile and 30% for the leather industry. Also, it was the large firms who had greater access to the stimulus package: 46% of the surveyed large firms received the stimulus package in contrast to 30% medium firms and 9% small firms. Also read: Almost three quarters of firms yet to receive stimulus: SANEM Former lead economist of the World Bank Dhaka Zahid Hussain said recovery across the economy has been experienced to some extent; however, it has not been uniform across all sectors. "Time and again, it has been evident that large firms are at an advantage compared to micro and small firms. Large firms often have more influence and power, leading to better bargaining power and hence, giving them better access to stimulus packages," he added.   Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rizwan Rahman said the central bank and monetary institutions must formulate strict guidelines for the banking sector to ensure that loans are disbursed to small and micro-enterprises.

Cottage, micro, small and medium enterprise (CMSME) affected by Covid-19 will now be eligible to avail term loans under the collateral free credit guarantee scheme of Bangladesh Bank as part of the government-announced stimulus package.

Bangladesh Bank has further extended the deadline until March 31 for the disbursement of loans under the government-announced stimulus package of Tk 20,000 crore for the Covid-19 affected cottage, micro, small and medium enterprise (CMSME) sector.  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday asked the Finance Ministry and other relevant ministries and divisions to formulate another financial stimulus package keeping in mind the ‘second wave’ of Covid-19.

Around 72 percent of the firms surveyed are yet to receive any stimulus package, according to a survey of South Asian Network of Economic Modeling (SANEM).

 The amount of working capital loan for Covid-19 affected industries and service sectors under the Prime Minister’s announced Economic Stimulus Package has been raised to Tk 40,000 crore from Tk 33,000 crore, a Bangladesh Bank circular said Thursday.

Developing economies in Asia will contract this year, the first such downturn in nearly six decades, the Asian Development Bank said Tuesday in an update to its forecasts.

Manpower Recruiting Agencies Oikko Parishad on Wednesday demanded stimulus package of Tk 2,000 crore arguing that the manpower export sector is the greatest sufferer of damage during Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Sheikh Haisna on Sunday ruled out the possibility of opening educational institutions right now saying that students are the future of the country and the government does not want to put them at risk.