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Credit card spending
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spending fell only 1.4 per cent in February last year compared to January 2022’s Tk 2,138 crore.
The number of transactions by credit cards also declined on month to month basis in February this year, showed the central bank data.
Mohammad Razimul Haque Razim, head of cards of the City Bank Ltd, has blamed the fall in credit card spending on the reduced purchasing capacity of the people caused by ongoing high inflation.
Many cautiously cut their spending by credit card to reduce pressure on their wallets, he said.
Razim said credit card loan is a revolving credit, which has high interest. “But if a customer clears all dues on time, there would be no interest as well.”
As of February this year, banks issued 21.58 crore credit cards, which was higher from January and from the same month a year ago, data by the central bank showed.
Md Abu Bokar Siddik, head of cards of Mutual Trust Bank Ltd, said February has 28 days whereas January 31 days, which was the main reason of experiencing a fall in credit card use.
However, Md Abed ur Rahman, head of cards of Midland Bank, said a section of credit card users have already exhausted their credit limit.
Many have become cautious in spending because of the rising cost of living, he added.
Inflation in Bangladesh climbed 8.78 per cent year-on-year in February, snapping a declining trend of the previous five months.
In March, consumer prices jumped to a seven-month high of 9.33 per cent, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Syed Mohammad Kamal, country head for MasterCard in Bangladesh, said credit card transactions in March was good and April would be good also for Ramadan, which is an Eid shopping season.
The BB data showed that foreign currency transaction through credit card declined in February.
In February, this year, foreign currency transaction fell to a five-month low of Tk 557 crore, which is also lower by 10 per cent from the previous month’s Tk 620 crore.
However, overall foreign currency transaction by cards more than doubled year-on-year from Tk 256 crore in February 2022.

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fixed work hours, no rest, no leave, no salary and no pension,” said Hasina while sharing her definition of women’s unpaid work.
Mannan said they may not be able to evaluate the love and affection of the mother. But women’s work like washing of clothes, cooking etc can be brought into the calculation, he said.
“We have already passed directives to the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) to do some work on how this could be incorporated,” said the minister.
However, shedding light on this issue, Shamsul Alam, state minister for planning, said the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics estimates the GDP following a system of national accounts in light of the Statistical Commission of the United Nations.
Due to limitations in the international formula, he suggested forming a shadow satellite account and thus estimating the contributions of women pricing their labour in financial terms.
A satellite account is a framework which extends the central framework of the national accounts, in which only a small part of the unpaid productive activities of private households are taken into account.
At the meeting, the premier also asked the authorities concerned to put more emphasis on utilising the untapped potentials of “blue economy”.
According to the World Bank, the blue economy is the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem”.