Published : 30 Sep 2026, 04:39 PM
Updated : 30 Sep 2026, 04:39 PM
Bangladesh Bank has held its policy rate steady at 9.5 percent for the second quarter of the fiscal year, keeping all other monetary policy targets unchanged from the previous statement.
The central bank unveiled the policy for October-December on Wednesday, with Deputy Governor Habibur Rahman setting out the targets at a media briefing at 3pm.
The rate has stayed unchanged since July, when the central bank trimmed it by 50 basis points from 10 percent -- the level set in its last policy statement, in June.
Habibur said the current level remained relatively high compared with those of Bangladesh's peer countries.
He described the current monetary policy stance as somewhat contractionary, or tight, given the level of the rate.
Why Three Months
Bangladesh Bank said when announcing its monetary policy in June that it would move to announcing the policy every three months.
Explaining the change, Habibur said the three-month cycle is common internationally, while neighbouring India reviews its policy every two months.
Bangladesh cannot yet follow a shorter cycle because sufficient economic data are not available, the deputy governor added.
Import-export data are updated every month and become available soon after the end of each month. But data for other economic indicators are not available as quickly.
Habibur pointed to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data, saying figures for some indicators, particularly industrial production, come much later.
Inflation Remains A Concern
The policy rate remains somewhat higher than the inflation rate, meaning the real interest rate observed in the market is still positive, the official said.
He described this as an indicator of the “tight or contractionary” monetary policy stance.
The deputy governor flagged fresh uncertainty over the inflation outlook, warning that the recently announced pay scale hike for government employees could add to demand-side pressures and put the ongoing disinflation trend at risk.
"There's some hesitation on our part about how far that disinflation path can hold going forward," he said.
That uncertainty, he added, was behind the decision to keep the policy rate unchanged.
The monetary policy statement is usually delivered by the Bangladesh Bank governor, but he was absent from Wednesday's briefing.
Habibur attributed this to the governor being occupied with official government duties.
