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Bangladeshis living abroad sent home $5,984 million in the just-ended fiscal year, which was 25 per cent more than the amount remitted a year before.
   The impressive growth of homebound remittance put the foreign exchange reserves to $5,098 million, well above the safe threshold equivalent of three months’ import bills, sources in the central bank said.
   The provisional June remittance amounted to $517 million, $44 million less than the May figures.
   In November 2006, the country received its highest ever amount of monthly remittance worth $598.73 million due to Eid festival and also for general elections, which were later cancelled, said an official of Bangladesh Bank.
   The remittance growth came on the back of a sharp jump in manpower export, stable exchange rate and quick deliveries of money to home through a network of over 660 foreign exchange houses, the central bank official explained.
   In the first nine months of the 2006-07 fiscal that ended on June 30, a total of 354,710 people left homes for jobs abroad through legal channel. A total of 286,000 people entered the global job market in the whole 2005-06 fiscal year, according to statistics.
   About 4.5 million Bangladeshis are currently working in different countries of the world.
   The exchange rate of dollar was quite stable at Tk 67-69 level throughout the year, which also encouraged the expatriates to send more money through formal channel.
   The central bank gave permission to over 660 exchange houses to have transactions with local banks to accelerate money transfers through official channels and curb hundi business.
   This exchange houses played a key role in increasing the remittance inflow. Local banks now take maximum 72 hours to reach the money to recipients anywhere in the country.
   The remittance coming from Saudi Arabia, USA, UK, UAE and Kuwait totalled $4,603 million up from July 2006 up to May 2007.
   It is expected that remittance from Saudi Arabia would cross $1.7 billion which was $1.69 billion in 2005-06, said the central bank official.
   Another new dimension of remittance is that over $1.7 billion was remitted from the US and UK in the current fiscal, which was $1.32 billion in the last fiscal.

Dhaka Stock Exchange on Wednesday sent a letter to the office of controller of insurance seeking information about the rumoured move for insurance sector reforms that influenced the stock prices.
   ‘We have sent the letter to the controller of insurance to know whether it has initiated any such move,’ said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, chief executive officer of DSE.
   He said a speculation goes that the controller office took up a move for insurance companies to raise their capitals has pushed up the prices of the insurance stocks heavily in recent times.
   Share prices of insurance companies started rising since June 21 amid speculations that the booming sector would go through extensive reforms soon, market sources said.
   DSE statistics showed that out of the listed 32 insurance companies, 24 gained during the last couple of weeks, while share prices of the remaining eight fell slightly. Life insurance companies were the top gainers.
   From June 21 to July 4, Fareast Life Insurance gained Tk 391.25 to close at Tk 1373, National Life Insurance Tk 613.75 to close at Tk 2335.25, Popular Tk 586.75 to close at Tk 1513.50, Sandhani Tk 264.50 to close at Tk 671.25, Prime Islami Life Insurance Tk 135.75 to close at Tk 438.75, Delta Life Tk 2514.75 to close at Tk 7142.25, Pragati Tk 328 to close at Tk 778, Progressive Life Insurance Tk 143.25 to close at Tk 414 and Meghna Tk 152 to close at Tk 552.75.
   Meghna and Popular life insurance companies on Monday reported to the DSE about increases in their life revenue accounts.
   Dhaka stocks ended Wednesday almost flat, with general index gaining 1.67 points or 0.76 per cent to close at 2188.
   The bourse’s blue chips index, DSE20, lost 0.95 points or 0.05 per cent to close at 1890.43.
   Turnover at the DSE fell to Tk 160.71 crore from Tuesday’s Tk 199.58 crore.

British retailer Tesco faced shareholders’ flak for its cheaper procurements from many developing countries including Bangladesh, contributing to the erosion of living wages of workers, business sources said.
   According to daily Guardian and UK’s rights group War on Want, a significant number of shareholders at the TESCO’s annual general meeting in London refused to reject a resolution calling for Tesco to pay for workers in the developing countries to get a “living wage”.
   Tesco procures readymade garments worth more than hundred million pounds from Bangladeshi factories, some of which had been alleged for paying their workers meagre wages to become one of the world’s cheapest manufacturers.
   A couple of month’s back, labour rights campaigners revealed that TESCO suppliers from Bangladesh shipped jeans for as low as 3 pound per pair as they saved cost by not providing their workers with living wages.
   A section of shareholders of the largest UK retailers then initiated a resolution to ask the company to ensure that its low-cost suppliers pay their workers due wages.
   TECO board called on shareholders to reject the resolution saying that the company was already taking steps to make sure that its suppliers treat workers properly.
   ‘The irony is that shareholders vote against our resolution to increase the meagre pay of its outsourced workers,’ a TESCO shareholder, who is also a War on Want organiser told the meeting on June 29. ‘Let Tesco, as the market leader, steal a march on its competitors and blaze an ethical trail,’ said the shareholder, who used only one name, Birnberg.
   From the floor, one small shareholder proposed that TESCO bosses should spend six months working in a Bangladeshi textile mill and live on local wages.
   The meeting, which ran for more than three hours, was also addressed by a Bangladeshi textile worker, who reinforced the observation that workers in Bangladeshi factories are not being paid ‘a living wage.’
   Campaigners in the TESCO meeting alleged that many Bangladeshi workers are paid 5 pence an hour to make clothes for TESCO, while factories compel workers to work even up to 80 hours a week.

The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, on Wednesday deplored the dependence of local textile and garment industries on foreign executives and managers.
   ‘Bangladesh began garment manufacturing in 1978… Even after 30 years why do we have to bring foreign people to manage our businesses?’ asked Moeen at a certificate giving ceremony in the city.
   General Moeen regretted that Bangladesh, in spite of having decades of experience in garment manufacturing, has not exported textile professionals to other countries.
   Bangladesh’s textile and garment units, the prime industries of the country that earn more than three-fourths of the country’s foreign exchange, hire thousands of executives, mid-level managers and engineers every year from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and some other countries.
   Moeen handed over certificates to a few of the 156 youths who completed training in the Bangladesh Institute of Fashion and Technology and immediately got jobs as operators in sweater manufacturing units.
   The training programme included 50 youths who were picked by Bangladesh army which has a programme — Alor Dishary — to provide employment to youths in certain localities of northern districts where a famine-like situation occurs at a certain period every year.
   The certificate giving ceremony, held at the BIFT Campus at Uttara, was addressed by the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez.
   Annisul Huq, former president of the BGMEA, Benazir Ahmed, chairman of the BIFT’s board of governors, and its principle, Nazrul Islam, also spoke on the occasion.
   The BGMEA leaders lauded the armed forces’ ‘timely actions’ in installing and supporting the present caretaker government which, they observed, rescued the countrymen and the economy from political turmoil.
   BGMEA leaders and BIFT executives said that if the government provides a two-bigha plot of land to BIFT, it could have its own campus.
   Moeen replied that the BIFT should be provided land of more than two bighas, and he pledged that he would use his good offices in persuading the government to do so. A fashion show, conducted by the students of the BIFT, was a part of ceremony.
   Later, the Bangladesh Garements Manufacturers and Exporters Association organised a fashion show at the BGMEA Institute of Fashion Technology at Uttara of the capital. Models displayed various stylish wears at the fashion show, attended by a good number of fashion loving spectators.

A British offshore energy organisation called on Tuesday for more investment and lower taxation for companies extracting oil and gas from the North Sea.
   ‘The UK’s increasing reliance on oil and gas make it absolutely imperative that we maximise the recovery of our own reserves,’ said Malcolm Webb, boss of Oil and Gas UK, which represents the offshore industry in Britain.
   ‘A more competitive fiscal and regulatory regime will help attract the investment necessary to provide 25 per cent of the UK’s gas and 60 per cent of the UK’s oil in 2020,’ he added.
   The country’s offshore oil and gas sector produced 2.9 million barrels per day of oil equivalent last year, according to an annual report published on Tuesday by Oil and Gas UK.
   That was forecast to increase to 3.0 million barrels per day in 2007.
   Total offshore production in 2006 stood at 1.1 billion bpdoe.
   But taxation revenues from the sector would shrink in 2007 due to rising costs, falling production and lower wholesale gas prices, the report warned.

Three students of the Institute of Business Administration of Dhaka University won the ‘Best of the Best’ Award at the regional finals of the HSBC’s Young Entrepreneur Awards in Hong Kong recently.
   Zeeshan Rahman, Joydeep Choudhury and Baizeed Md Nur, members of the Bangladeshi team, won the award for an innovative business plan based on the industrial waste management solutions, said a press release.
   The winners will receive HK$100,000 (Tk 9 lakhs) from the HSBC Business Development Fund.
   This money will be added to the prize money that they had already won for winning the Bangladesh competition.
   Margerate Leung, general manager Global Co-head of Commercial Banking of HSBC, was present at the regional finals of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd at a function in Hongkong recently.
   The HSBC sponsored an educational trip of nine students to Hong Kong to compete in the final selection for the award.
   More than 3600 full-time university students from across the Asia-Pacific region participated in the competition.

Banglalink signed a corporate agreement with the Hill Side Apartments in Sylhet recently under its corporate package ‘Enterprise.’
   Tanvir Ibrahim, head of corporate sales of Banglalink, and Haseen Ahmed, managing director of Hill Side Apartments, initialed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations, said a press release. Officials of Banglalink were also present at the agreement signing ceremony.
   Hill Side Apartments is a property developer and construction firm in Sylhet. The Banglalink package ‘Enterprise’ has significantly reduced the company’s communication cost and introduced some special value added services.

Iran admitted on Tuesday that international sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear programme were harming its ability to invest in oil infrastructure, the backbone of its economy.
   ‘The problems that they have made for banks have troubled financing of some projects,’ Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh told the official IRNA news agency.
   He said that the government was attempting to use its own resources, built up from windfall receipts resulting from the high world oil prices of recent years, to make up for the shortfalls in foreign investment.
   ‘The government makes a decision in this respect using internal resources and the Oil Stabilisation Fund,’ into which the government invests oil income that exceed the needs of normal state expenditures, the minister said.
   Hamaneh’s admission contrasted with comments by hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday in which he insisted that Iran was unfazed by the prospect of further sanctions.
   ‘They cannot hurt us, not that they don’t want to but because they are incapable of doing do as they are in a difficult situation,’ he said.
   A veteran oil ministry official, Hamaneh was the president’s third choice for the position after parliament rejected his first two nominees.
   The UN Security Council has adopted two sets of sanctions against Iran over its failure to heed ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment, the process that produces fuel for nuclear power stations, but in extended form can also make the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
   The UN sanctions so far have been largely focussed on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but Washington has been putting pressure on international banks to curtail their business in US dollars with Iran.
   In response to mounting US pressure, Iran said it would stop pricing its oil in dollars and replace the US currency with the euro in foreign transactions and state-held foreign assets.
   But the existing sanctions and the looming threat of tougher ones have sparked concerns about investment risks in Iran, which needs foreign investment and know-how to develop its oil and gas infrastructure.
   For years, Iran has been under unilateral US economic sanctions, which bar American oil companies from doing business with Iran and could punish foreign energy companies investing more than 20 million dollars in its oil industry.
   Ahmadinejad has vowed to press on with the nuclear programme and this month introduced a scheme rationing petrol, which he said had helped insulate Iran from the impact of any new sanctions.
   ‘The enemies have admitted that controlling and reducing petrol consumption has made Iran invincible,’ he said.
   Despite being the world’s fourth largest oil producer, Iran has had to resort to imports for 40 per cent of its petrol needs in recent years because of a lack of refining capacity.

Japanese firms in Thailand are beginning to reduce their investments in the kingdom due to the strong baht and negative perceptions about the investment climate, a survey said Wednesday.
   Japan is Thailand’s biggest foreign investor, but a survey of the 351 members of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce found that business sentiment in Thailand is ‘deteriorating’ for the first time since 1998.
   Firms saying their investments in Thailand would decrease outnumbered those planning to increase capital spending in Bangkok, according to the poll by the Japan External Trade Organisation Jetro.
   The value of planned Japanese investments in Thailand this year has already fallen 11 per cent from 2006, the survey said.
   ‘It was the first time in nine years that we found those results, with sentiment deteriorating continuously,’ Jetro Bangkok president Yoichi Kato told reporters.
   ‘We found the willingness to invest declined compared to a year before,’ he added.
   The twice-yearly survey, conducted from April 27 to May 23, found the appreciation of the baht was the top concern for Japanese companies in Thailand, following by political instability, economic policies and rising labour costs.
   ‘Japanese firms view that the exchange rate of 37.25 baht to the dollar is a profitable rate. But the current market rate of 34.49 baht makes them lose 7.4 per cent in profits,’ Kato said.
   Kiyoharu Yukiyoshi, executive director of JCC Bangkok, said Japanese firms have adopted a wait and see stance before making new investments in Thailand.

Growth in China’s roaring economy is expected to continue apace this year, rising 10.9 per cent, a government think tank report said Wednesday, urging further economic cooling measures.
   The projected annual growth is slightly higher than 10.7 per cent in 2006, supported by strong consumption and high levels of fixed-asset investment, said the State Information Centre, a research arm of the National Reform and Development Commission.
   ‘The trend is of an economy that is moving from a bias of fast growth to overheating,’ the report published in the China Securities Journal said, adding that the economy was still in an ‘ascending period’ of the cycle.
   The country needs to further tighten macroeconomic controls in the second half, with monetary policy generally stable but needing ‘appropriate tightening’ to ensure economic growth remains rapid but stable.
   It said that current real interest rates are comparatively low and that the central bank should raise the benchmark lending and borrowing rates and also increase the reserve requirements of banks.
   The central bank hiked interest rates twice this year and five times required commercial banks to place more money in reserve in an effort to cool inflation, fixed-asset investment and stock market speculation.
   In addition, the central government should consider removing the tax on interest income from bank deposits, the centre said, a move aimed at staunching the flow of savings into the stock market accounts.
   The report also forecast that growth in China’s trade surplus would slow in the second half as tax rebates and the appreciation of the currency, which makes exports from China more expensive, bite.

French prime minister Francois Fillon vowed on Tuesday to defend the interests of French farmers at the ongoing World Trade Organization talks.
   Fillon said during a state of the nation address that the new French government would ‘not let negotiations within the WTO work against our agriculture.’
   Launched in the capital of Qatar, Doha, six years ago, the trade negotiations are deadlocked in part owing to divergences between developed and developing countries on how much to slash farm subsidies.
   France is loath to reduce customs duties on farm products which protect its farmers.
   With regard to market access for industrial goods and services, another thorny issue before the WTO, Fillon called for reciprocity on the part of major emerging economies.
   ‘For our industrial and services groups we demand reciprocity,’ he said.
   The French premier also argued for France to be able to help small and medium sized enterprises by reserving a portion of public contracts for them, yet another issue being discussed at the WTO.
   ‘I will propose that along the lines of the American ‘Small Business Act,’ that a portion of public contracts be reserved for French SMEs,’ he said, noting that was already the case also in Canada and Japan.
   French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that he would fight for such a measure on a European level.

EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday slapped a 151.9 million euro fine on Spanish operator Telefonica in a crackdown on uncompetitive practices in Europe’s communications market.
   EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she was imposing the fine, worth 206 million dollars, because Telefonica had stifled competition in the broadband Internet market.
   Kroes said she wanted to ‘send a strong signal’ to other companies that crush rivals unfairly using dominant market power, especially in key sectors such as telecommunications, energy and transport.
   ‘Let me be perfectly clear — I will not allow dominant companies to use their market power to close down markets that the European Union has opened,’ she told a news conference.
   The fine is the biggest ever slapped on a telecoms operator in Europe and the second biggest the Commission has imposed for abusing market strength after a hitting Microsoft with a penalty of nearly half a billion euros in 2004.
   Describing the ruling as ‘inexplicable,’ Telefonica said that it would challenge the decision with an appeal before an EU court.
   ‘Telefonica finds the decision by Brussels to be unjustified and disproportionate, both legally and economically,’ the company said in a statement from Madrid.
   Europe’s top antitrust watchdog accused Telefonica of ‘a very serious abuse of its dominant position’ by squeezing margins of rival broadband access providers for over five years in the way it set wholesale and retail prices.
   As a result, she said, ‘Spanish consumers are paying far more than the average for high-speed Internet access and many have chosen not to pay that price.’
   As the only Spanish telecommunications operator that has a nation-wide fixed telephone network, Telefonica’s rivals were obliged to buy wholesale broadband access from it.
   However, the Commission accused Telefonica of keeping the wholesale price ‘artificially high’ compared to its own retail price, against which competitors then had to compete.
   As a result, competitors saw their margins ‘squeezed’ by what they had to pay Telefonica for wholesale access and what they had to charge clients to be able to compete with Telefonica.
   ‘In so doing, Telefonica weakened its competitors, making their continued presence and growth difficult: competitors were forced to make losses if they wanted to match Telefonica’s retail prices,’ the Commission said in a statement.

Shoppers went on a stampede in a leading Harare supermarket Tuesday, heaping trolleys with groceries after the government slashed prices by half in a bid to curb profiteering.
   In another store down the street, gaping spaces testify to shoppers stripping shelves of soap, sugar, bread, milk and other commodities.
   Zimbabwe has been gripped by panic buying as consumers cash in on a price freeze and stock up in anticipation of shortages likely to follow.
   ‘The reason I am buying these things ... is that I do not know what will happen tomorrow,’ said Tafadzwa Musemburi, an automobile electrician in Harare.
   ‘I was forced to borrow four-million dollars (16,000 US dollars) just to get these few things,’ he said pointing to a trolley containing sugar beans, peanut butter and other items.
   Commodities are fast vanishing after the government forced shops to cut prices and ordered a freeze on increases.
   President Robert Mugabe has accused businesses of profiteering and working in cahoots with the country’s enemies to incite people to revolt against his government.
   Crack units of security force members and a pricing commission have been set up to raid shops and arrest those who violate the directive.
   On Monday, police raided spots where black market dealers are known to operate and seized various groceries.
   ‘We have started to deal with the parallel market dealers as they are hoarding foodstuffs,’ police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka told AFP, adding that 190 people were arrested for breaching the price ceiling.
   Mugabe warned last week his government would seize and nationalise businesses found to be profiteering, as well as mines taking minerals out of Zimbabwe.
   ‘This nonsense of price escalations must come to an end,’ the octogenarian president told mourners at the burial of national hero Paul Armstrong Gunda.
   ‘Those who are in construction and supplies, take note. We are following you. It’s not going to be an easy game. It’s going to be a rough one. We will never allow ourselves to be defeated by these British tactics.
   ‘The companies must straighten their ways because those in gold mining are externalising gold. We will nationalise them if they continue with their dirty tricks.’
   Following Mugabe’s statement, Industry and International Trade minister Obert Mpofu ordered a blanket freeze on the prices of all goods and services.
   Many shops in the capital have followed the government order and reduced the price of commodities such as bread from 44,000 dollars to 22,000 dollars.
   Analysts warn the price freeze would only worsen the lot of industries already struggling against foreign currency shortages and frequent power cuts.
   Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president, Marah Hativagone, told AFP: ‘My heart is bleeding right now because this does not work and consumers are the ones who will suffer.
   ‘I just hope the government will see sense and revert to normal business practices.’
   Hativagone said many companies would be unable to pay their workers after being forced to reduce their product prices.
   ‘Our laws do not allow us to cut wages or salaries.’
   Retail shop assistant Tapiwa Madzikana is not certain what the future holds.
   ‘What will happen to us after all the goods disappear from the shops, nobody knows and nobody seems to care,’ he told AFP on Sunday.
   ‘Right now it is better to buy what you can and stock or re-sell it because very soon the shelves will be empty. As you can see for yourself some sections of the shop are already empty.’
   The Zimbabwean government introduced price controls five years ago to fight a burgeoning black market in staples like cornmeal, cooking oil and bread, but has failed to stem spiralling inflation.

Germany will introduce a raft of energy-saving measures over the coming months, chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday, amid industry concerns that the measures to fight climate change were unrealistic.
   Merkel chaired a meeting of politicians, industry representatives and environmental campaigners in the German capital that was designed as a forum for discussion, with concrete measures to be decided at a later date.
   The chancellor earmarked fuel-efficient cars, houses with innovative heating systems and energy-saving household appliances as areas the government wanted to see developed.
   ‘Seventy per cent of energy generated in Germany is used in transport and heating,’ she noted.
   Germany is hoping the introduction of the new measures will increase energy efficiency by three per cent a year until 2020.
   Though vague, the aims were welcomed by German environmental group BUND, which said: ‘Merkel seems to have understood that to be effective, action to protect the climate can only work if it is directed against the big electricity suppliers.’
   The European Union has set a goal of a 20-per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, but Germany is aiming for a cut of up to 40 per cent.

Britain’s new finance minister Alistair Darling rejected the concept of economic nationalism as ‘nonsense’ in an interview published Wednesday.
   Speaking to the Financial Times from his central London office, Darling said that there was an ideological battle within the European Union between those who believed in the Lisbon agenda, a 10-year reform drive launched in 2000, and those who didn’t.
   ‘I do not believe in economic patriotism,’ Darling told the business daily.
   ‘I think it is nonsense. Economic patriotism is protectionism and there is no other name for it.’
   The paper interpreted Darling’s comments as a criticism of the policy of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has in the past defended the right to block corporate takeovers and to protect domestic industries with the term ‘economic nationalism.’
   ‘There is an ideological battle in Europe at the moment between those who genuinely believe in the Lisbon process we signed up to seven years ago and those who don’t, to put it bluntly,’ Darling said.
   Darling was named Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer on Thursday, and succeeds current prime minister Gordon Brown in the post.

Australia’s central bank ignored inflationary jitters to leave interest rates unchanged at 6.25 per cent Wednesday, ending speculation of a hike before this year’s election, economists said.
   The decision by the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia not to hike rates was in line with market expectations after data released Tuesday showing weaker than expected retail trade and building approvals.
   The decision indicates that the central bank feels it still has time to act by increasing rates if it feels that inflationary pressure reaches a critical level, economists said.
   They said rates now appeared set to remain on hold until early 2008, meaning the government will not face a politically-sensitive rate hike in the lead up to national elections due before the end of the year.

The dollar took a breather in Asian trade Wednesday as the market looked ahead to this week’s European interest rate decisions, with US markets closed for a national holiday, dealers said.
   The dollar was steady at 122.42 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, little changed from 122.40 in New York late Tuesday.
   The euro firmed to 1.3617 dollars from 1.3610, in sight of its record high of 1.3682 reached on April 27. The single currency was steady at 166.63 yen after 166.61.
   The British pound dropped to 2.0179 dollars from 2.0197 dollars, easing back from its highest level against the US currency since 1981.
   Trading was thin as US markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday and with market players waiting for monetary policy meetings in Europe, said Yoshifumi Suzuki, forex dealer at Hachijuni Bank.
   The Bank of England is expected to raise its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 5.75 at its monetary policy meeting on Thursday in a bid to dampen inflationary pressures.
   The European Central Bank will meet the same day and is expected to leave its benchmark rate on hold at 4.0 percent but the market will be looking for signals on a possible August rise, dealers said.
   The market has been focusing on widening interest rate differentials, prompting them to sell low-yielding currencies such as the yen and to invest in higher-yielding assets such as the euro, the pound, and the New Zealand dollar.
   Political factors are also weighing on the yen after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suffered another blow Tuesday with the resignation of his defence minister over comments on the US atomic bombings of Japan.
   The resignation comes as Abe struggles with falling public approval ratings just ahead of July 29 upper house elections.
   ‘The resignation of the minister has increased mistrust towards the government. This could lead to falling Japanese shares and provide an incentive to sell the yen over the coming months,’ said Suzuki of Hachijuni Bank.
   The row has sparked speculation that the Bank of Japan, despite having independence in setting monetary policy, may hold off on raising interest rates until the political situation stabilises, dealers said.
   ‘We’ll have to wait for the outcome of the elections but an unstable environment could pressure the BoJ to hold rates steady, as it was forced to do in January,’ Suzuki said.
   The BoJ opted to maintain interest rates unchanged early this year in a decision criticised as bowing to government pressure.
   On the data front, the market is waiting for key US employment data for June due out on Friday.

BSB recovers
Tk 106.40cr
Bangladesh Shilpa Bank recovered Tk 106.40 crore in cash during the fiscal year 2006-07, which was 6.40 per cent higher than the recovery target. Managing director of BSB, Md Amanullah, disclosed this on Wednesday. He informed that in the last financial year the bank sanctioned over Tk 119 crore for the 51 projects. During the period, the BSB disbursed Tk 53.47 crore against 53 projects. At the same time 20 projects liquidated their loan accounts with the Bank. The bank repaid about Tk 59.55 crore to Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh government and other agencies towards Debt Service Liability.
— UNB

Eurozone retail sales weaker in May
Retailers in the 13 countries sharing the euro saw weaker sales in May than expected amid a lacklustre performance in regional heavyweight Germany, official EU data showed Wednesday. The volume of retail trade in the eurozone fell O.5 per cent in May from April and rose 0.4 per cent over 12 months, the European Union’s Eurostat data agency said. The result fell short of economists’ expectations for retail sales to slip 0.1 per cent over one month and grow 1.6 per cent over one year. It also marked a slowdown from April when the volume of retail trade eased 0.1 per cent over one month and rose 1.5 per cent over one year.
— AFP

Malaysia’s trade surplus down 1.25pc
Malaysia’s May trade surplus fell 1.25 per cent to 7.89 billion ringgit ($2.3b) but was up 35 per cent compared with the April outcome, official data showed Wednesday. Exports for May rose 7.4 per cent from a year earlier to 49.56 billion ringgit and were up 3.4 per cent from April while imports were up 3.5 per cent to 41.67 billion ringgit with the month-on-month gain at 3.4 per cent. ‘It was the highest monthly exports recorded in the last five months,’ the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
said.
— AFP