Finance minister to review savings certificates interest rate 

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said he is considering cutting savings certificates interest rates.

Chief Economics Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 5 April 2015, 02:25 PM
Updated : 5 April 2015, 03:33 PM

“The savings certificates interest rate is really very high,” he told bdnews24.com after a discussion on the upcoming 2015-16 budget on Sunday.
 
“The investment in this segment will increase if it (the current rate of interest) remains unchanged. But the government’s future debt will increase, too,” he explained.
 
“So we have decided to review it. We had raised the rate. But it is not possible this time,” he added.
 
He, however, gave no indication of what the new rate would be, the types of certificates or the date.
 
Policy Research Institute’s Executive Director Ahsan Mansur drew the finance minister’s attention to the high rate of interest. 
 
He said savings certificates sales had soared ‘alarmingly’.
 
“The increase in sales forced the government to borrow double the target set for the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal,” Mansur said.
 
“The government will face problems managing the budget, if the trend continues,” he warned.
 
But the finance minister said, “The high rate of interest won’t continue.”