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Bloomberg lauds PM’s
FROM PAGE 12
being penalised at the ballot box. Prime Minister Hasina isn’t one of them.
Her quick execution of IMF mandates have stood out in South Asia where Pakistan is still fiddling with fuel subsidies just as it inches closer to reviving a bailout. Sri Lanka has delayed local municipal polls as it raised taxes and interest rates to clinch IMF funds last week.
Bangladesh, which in July became the last of the three countries to ask for IMF support, was the first to get loans approved after swiftly raising energy prices.
“Gas and electricity supply can be provided if all agree to pay the purchasing costs,” she said a week after $4.7 billion in IMF loans was secured on January 31. “How much subsidy can be given? And why should we continue subsidies?”
Such comments are typically unheard of as elections approach: All three nations face key votes over the next 18 months. But unlike leaders in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Hasina is widely expected to win a fourth straight term in national polls expected by January 2024 -- not least because many of her opponents are behind bars or ensnared in legal cases.
“If the ruling party manages to maintain economic stability, that could preempt anger or public sentiment that works against the government,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute. “Hasina certainly has the credibility to pull this off.”
In contrast, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif polled low in a survey ahead of elections later this year and has been blamed by voters for the economic crisis. While Sri Lankan leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has pushed through reforms, he depends on the support of a party run by a powerful clan and will need to seek a new mandate in presidential elections due September 2024.
Hasina is banking on her government’s move to go to the IMF to show to markets and voters that she has prevented the $460 billion Bangladeshi economy from going the way Sri Lanka has with a default. Pakistan is also facing the prospect of a default, said the article.
Bangladesh went to the IMF as it grappled with an energy crisis with commodity prices soaring last year due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, while the rising costs of imports widened the trade deficit. The local currency depreciated by a fifth and reserves fell to the lowest in three years.
By winning access to IMF funds, Hasina’s government is gaining some time to fix the economy before the elections. Signs of a weakening economy could well trigger public anger against the premier who has overseen growth of more than 6 percent on average for the past 14 years though it slowed to about 3.5 percent during the pandemic.
The first review of the IMF programme is set for the second half of 2023, and Bangladesh Mission Chief Rahul Anand sees the authorities “taking comprehensive steps” to unwind subsidies and move to a market-driven exchange rate.
Bangladesh has received $476 million under the facility so far. Further disbursements depend on the government ensuring reforms for the financial sector, ranging from the central bank pursuing an independent monetary policy to reducing non-performing loans and spurring climate change funding, the article added.

Honey bees can
FROM PAGE 12
There are also unseen urban dwellers – microorganisms – that play a key role in maintaining this ecosystem.
While past research has focused on the microbiome of indoor environments, not much is known about the ecosystem services provided by microbiomes of the outdoors, particularly in urban habitats.
Sampling an entire city to get a picture of its microbes can be labour-intensive. So, Henaff and her colleagues investigated whether honey bees (Apis Mellifera) could help gather samples of microorganisms across cities, as these insects travel a mile from their hives for daily foraging.
For the pilot study in New York, the researchers took samples from three hives, which included debris at the bottom.
Samples were later collected from hive debris in Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, Venice in Italy, and Tokyo in Japan.
Findings suggest that each location has a unique genetic signature, the researchers said.
For example, the team said the genetic data in Venice was dominated by fungi related to wood rot and date palm DNA while in Tokyo samples included plant DNA from lotus and wild soybean, as well as the soy sauce fermenting yeast Zygosaccharomyces rouxii.
Genetic material for Rickettsia felis – a bacterium that is spread to humans via cat scratches – was found in the debris of some of the hives.
The researchers said their work shows potential for using bees as a surveillance method to track microbes in cities.
The research is published in the journal Environmental Microbiome.