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Excess liquidity hits banks

REJAUL KARIM BYRON
Excess liquidity in banks reached as high asTk 27,716 crore in April, pointing to sluggish investment.
Bangladesh Bank June 2009 Update shows that banks had Tk 12,988 crore in excess liquidity in June 2008.
The March figure was Tk 24,000 crore, indicating an every month rise in such excess liquidity.
Economists and bankers think the investment flow is not picking up because of the ongoing global recession and paucity of gas and power despite the fact that an elected government is at the helm.
The central bank report points to a decline in capital machinery and industrial raw material imports. A fall of around 6 percentage point in the private sector credit in April has also been shown in the report.
Meanwhile, an announcement of expansionary monetary policy by the central bank is imminent, according to a BB high official.
BB has been following a contractionary policy for the last two years.
The private sector credit dropped to 16.97 percent in April from 22.89 percent in the same month a year earlier. Such a fall went below the target of cutting the credit growth down to 18 percent, as set by the central bank.
The call money market shows that the excess bank liquidity has also caused a drop in interest rates. The rates were 1.97 percent in April, 3.28 percent in May and 1.79 percent in June, which were 15.48 percent, 14.11 percent and 9.90 percent in the corresponding period last year.
A top brass of a private commercial bank said such a trend shows a low investment demand, which he attributed to the financial meltdown worldwide.
The data of a 30.21 percent fall in the opening of letters of credit for the imports of capital machinery and 11.12 percent in the case of industrial raw materials suggest a bleak production scenario, and also a frustrating future.
"International economic situation is not good yet. The present investment is low, as our economy does not remain immune from the global crisis," Zaid Bakht, research director, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, told The Daily Star.
He said power and gas situation, a precondition for investment growth, is not good.
The BIDS official also pointed out that entrepreneurs remain shaky about new investments because there are signs of a possible confrontation in the country's political arena.