DHAKA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The central bank of Bangladesh rolled out its monetary policy on Monday for the second half of the current fiscal year ending June 2018 with a focus on government's sustainable development agenda.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the half-yearly Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) outlines recent domestic and external economic and financial sector developments.
The policy is designed to support the government's policies and programs in pursuit of faster inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), central bank Governor Governor Fazle Kabir told a press conference.
Given the global and domestic outlook, BB said, the monetary program retains domestic credit growth ceiling unchanged to 15.8 percent, adequate to accommodate the targeted 7.4-percent GDP growth with up to 6 percent annual average inflation.
The Monetary Policy Statement suggested macro-prudential steps to curb imprudent and unproductive lending, including intensive surveillance on adherence to prescribed asset-liability management and rationalization of banks' advance or deposit ratios.
Alongside price and macro-financial stability, BB said its financial and monetary policies embrace inclusiveness and environmental dimensions in pursuit of employment creation focused inclusive growth support in tune with government's SDG agenda.
It looks to squeeze money supply and excessive lending.
According to the bank's Monetary Policy Statement, private sector credit growth target has been set at 16.8 percent against a previous projection of 16.3 percent.
The target is little lower than the growth of over 18 percent in December 2017.
