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The International Monetary Fund has prescribed upward adjustment of petroleum prices and higher revenue collection to finance the enhanced budgetary spending that is needed for protecting vulnerable groups from the impact of high commodity prices.
   ‘To finance this spending [subsidies and safety net concerns], continued improvements in revenue and reducing substantial SOE [state-owned enterprise] losses through price adjustments will be necessary,’ said the leader of the IMF mission, Thomas Rumbaugh, at a briefing on Sunday.
   He particularly suggested increasing the prices of petroleum products to reduce losses incurred by the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation in order to maintain fiscal balance, but said that the time for price adjustment should be decided by the government of Bangladesh.
   The BPC’s losses are likely to stand at more than Tk 7,000 crore due to the global hike in oil prices. The government also earns around Tk 3,000 crore every year from the import of petroleum by the BPC.
   Only on Thursday, the government increased the CNG price — a decision that has effectively put hundreds of thousands of passengers into serious trouble because of extra fares charged by transport workers.
   Rumbaugh termed food price spiral the biggest challenge facing Bangladesh’s economy and said the IMF had no provision to provide direct food assistance for countries such as Bangladesh. It can only give balance of payments support to maintain a healthy foreign exchange reserve, he added.
   However, the IMF has projected a higher economic growth of between 5.5 to 6 per cent, revising its own projection of 5 to 5.5 per cent early this calendar year.
   Following a six-day mission to review recent economic development and the outlook for 2008-09, the IMF team made the growth projection that is almost similar to the forecast by the Bangladesh Bank.
   ‘The country’s growth rate will be at least 6 per cent this fiscal year,’ said the Bangladesh Bank’s governor, Salehuddin Ahmed, after the delegation met him.
   The IMF team attributed this rebound of the Bangladesh economy to the bumper Boro harvest, more exports and huge remittance earning after the two floods and cyclone Sidr. The country’s reserve position has also appreciated, thanks to the robust size of private remittances and additional foreign aid including the IMF’s $218 million emergency natural disaster assistance.
   Rumbaugh further pointed out that there was considerable scope to further increase revenue earning by improving the administration. He also underlined the need for more improvements in the state-owned commercial banks.
   The country’s export sector is picking up, the service and agriculture sectors, too, are performing well, and the post-Sidr reconstruction programmes are paying off, added Salehuddin.
   Terming inflation, which was currently hovering around 10 per cent, a major challenge, the Washington-based IMF cautioned the monetary authorities to remain vigilant in monitoring inflation. ‘If economic activity and credit demand pick up, policy response may be required to keep inflationary pressure in check,’ said Rumbaugh.
   In its Regional Economic Outlook 2008 for Asia and the Pacific, the IMF referred to the ‘difficult choice’ for policymakers, saying that the combination of ongoing growth momentum and high, rising inflation suggests that growth concerns should be balanced against price stability concerns.
   When he was asked if the timing of raising the price of CNG [compressed natural gas] was alright in view of higher inflation, the IMF official said it was up to the judgment of the government which had the authority to take the decision.
   However, Salehuddin said the Bangladesh Bank would continue its current monetary policy stance even though the country was exposed to internal and external challenges.
   ‘Internal challenges are food price, infrastructural and supply sector problems, and the external challenge is oil price-hike in the international market,’ observed the BB’s governor.
   About the divestment of Rupali Bank, he said the state-owned bank should be corporatised by changing its memorandum of articles, after which the government should offload its ownership.

Stocks closed up on Sunday mainly owing to rise in share prices of mutual funds of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, said market operators.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 7.76 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 3087.11, while its blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 6.38 points or 0.27 per cent to close at 2401.25.
   A DSE stock broker said rise in the share prices of the mutual funds edged up the price indices of the market, which, otherwise, remained flat.
   According to the DSE official website, on the close of operation on March 31, the ICB mutual funds reported net asset value for First ICB MF of Tk 4543.76, Second ICB MF of Tk 1027.65, Third ICB MF of Tk 853.44, Fourth ICB MF of Tk 1012.99, Fifth ICB MF of Tk 1132.00, Sixth ICB MF of Tk 371.72, Seventh ICB MF of Tk 607.30 and Eighth ICB MF of Tk 425.12 per unit on current market price basis against face value of Tk 100 each.
   Chittagong Stock Exchange’s selective categories index gained 26.59 points or 0.48 per cent to close at 5559.45, while its blue chips index, CSE30, advanced by 52.66 points or 0.71 per cent to close at 7507.70.
   Of the total 247 issues traded at the DSE, 85 advanced, 151 declined and 11 remained unchanged, and out of 165 issues traded at the CSE, 64 post gains, 97 dropped and four remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE, however, decreased marginally to Tk 299.26 crore from the Thursday’s Tk 302.60 crore and the CSE turnover went down to Tk 37.81 crore from Tk 39.94 crore.
   AB Bank topped the turnover leaders at the DSE with total transactions of Tk 24.93 crore. United Commercial Bank was the second biggest turnover leader and Delta Brac Housing Finance Corporation, which debuted on the bourse on Thursday, the third biggest.
   Other turnover leaders at the prime bourse were Square Pharmaceuticals, ACI, Jamuna Oil Company, Heidelberg Cement, Aims 1st Mutual Fund, IFIC Bank and S Alam Cold Rolled Steels.

The Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation Sunday published a citizen charter with detail information about all its services for convenience of the local and foreign tourists especially to the beauty queen of the East, Cox’s Bazar sea-beach and mangrove forest Sunderbans.
   The charter with the vision and mission of the BPC was printed in a good-looking paperback in which all detail information of tourism spots and services in the country, provided by the BPC are available in the charter.
   BPC chairman Shafiq Alam Mehdi told BSS that the main objective of the state owned tourism body is to develop Bangladesh as an exotic tourist destination through creating and maintaining international standard tourism products and ancillary facilities.
   ‘We are really blessed with the longest sea-beach of the world, Cox’s Bazar and the largest mangrove forest and world heritage site, Sunderbans- to attract millions of tourists,’ he said, adding both the places are now voted as the top wonders of the world.
   ‘Through the charter, one could easily get all kinds of information about hotels and restaurants of BPC and its facilities which would surly help the tourist for enjoying secure and safe holidays,’ he said. A developed tourism industry could enhance balance of payment, create employment opportunities, alleviate poverty and create social harmony in the country, he observed.
   ‘Our one of the goal is to develop eco-tourism based on nature and ethnic culture as well as develop human resource in tourism sector,’ he told the news agency.
   The BPC chairman said, BPC is working on building a strong public-private partnership in the tourism industry. ‘To encourage private sector for promoting tourism in the country we have handed over the commercial units to the private management operators.’
   He said BPC also promote close cooperation with regional and international counterparts of the industry for attracting more foreign tourists in the country.
   The BPC, established in November 1972 and commenced its function in 1973, is an autonomous organizations under the ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.

Smaller call centres operating in the Philippines are not only faced with the challenge of finding enough skilled people to work for them. They are also struggling to keep their people from leaving and joining bigger call centres, a president of a local organisation of small call centres told INQUIRER.net Friday.
   The Philippine Call Centre Alliance president, Joji Ilagan-Bian, admitted in the sidelines of its quarterly round-table event that smaller call centre operators that usually have fewer than a hundred seats expect call centre agents to seek better paying jobs in bigger operations.
   ‘We accept that truth. That’s why we pamper our employees, giving them benefits such as housing,’ she said, adding that small call centres need to have at least 40 to 50 seats to become viable.
   Last year, Ilagan-Bian said that smaller call centres with less than 50 seats can survive in the market.
   But in the recent months, she said that seven small call centre members have folded and four have diversified into other information technology-related business.
   Small call centre companies need to invest at least 10 million pesos ($237,388) initially to survive for three months. That amount will allow for 50 seats, she said.
   ‘Smaller call centres don’t have access to training and capacity-building. That’s why we hold quarterly trainings with all our members. I believe every month one call centre closes, but another one opens,’ she added.
   PhilCall is currently hoping to get recognition from bigger organisations like the Business Processing Association of the Philippines and the Call Centre Association of the Philippines.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission will hand over 21 call centre licences to the private operators today (Monday) with the hope that local entrepreneurs will win a slice of the booming global multi-billion dollar business.
   Officials of the BTRC said that among the 21 licences, 10 would be for call centre, four for hosted call centre and seven for hosted call centre service provider categories.
   ‘We will hand over the licences on Monday at the BTRC’s office,’ said an official on Sunday, adding that this would open a new avenue of progress in the country’s telecommunications sector.
   The BTRC on April 9 invited applications from the individuals and businesses for setting up call centres in the country of three categories — call centre, hosted call centre and hosted call centre service provider — and the licence fee was fixed Tk 5,000 for each category as one-time fee for an initial term of five years.
   Upon expiry of 5 years, the licence may be renewed for subsequent terms, each of 5 years’ duration.
   Licences will be given to individuals, partnerships or local and joint venture companies that are formed and registered under the existing applicable laws of Bangladesh.
   The applications for licences will be received and processed on the first-come-first-served basis.
   A call centre, which is a centralised office used for receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone, is a booming business, and some Asian countries, particularly India, are enjoying its full benefit with the help of a vast and cost-effective workforce of educated, English-speaking personnel, low-cost technology and state support.

Private sector entrepreneurs and technology experts on Sunday suggested promotion of low-cost technology, particularly in agriculture sector, to fight poverty and increase productivity.
   They said a huge number of people in rural areas were still unaware of low-cost technologies which could increase their earning and productivity saving time and labour while steps were needed to popularise such machinery in a coordinated manner.
   Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation organised the seminar titled ‘poor-friendly sustainable technology’ as part of their Third Microcredit Fair at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the Dhaka city.
   Abdur Rab of voluntary organisation Practical Action, which promotes low-cost technologies, suggested that micro-credit operators should lay extra emphasis to equip their target groups with technological supports for increasing national productivity.
   ‘Many of our rural population yet don’t know about the essential and affordable technologies,’ he said, suggesting micro-credit operators to finance for purchasing paddy threshing and husking machines and power tillers.
   Dr Mahbubur Rahman of the Bangladesh Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research said the promotion of tissue cultures could increase production of fruits like apple, jackfruit, banana and wood apple, orange, gourmat dish, and export oriented flowers like orchid, rose, chandramollika, and vegetables like potato.
   He said, zone wise identification of produces could help promotion of essential technologies for particular areas while the producers needed technologies for preservation of agri-products.
   Mohammad Mazharul Haque of Bengal Meat said, fattening of cattle through appropriate technologies could yield manifolds of the meat and milk even beyond the national demand.
   PKSF deputy manager Golam Touhid moderated the seminar.

The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, in association with multilateral and bilateral donors, has established an infrastructure advisory facility to help the South Asia region develop bankable infrastructure projects, largely through the public-private partnerships.
   Accordingly, the IFC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd, India recently.
   The Indian government has also chosen the IFC as the transaction adviser for the public private partnership transactions in India.
   The IFC has advised the Bangladesh government over a structuring deal for a 400-megawatt, gas-based power generation project.
   Dhanendra Kumar, World Bank Group executive director and India’s representative on IFCs board of directors, Farida Khambata, IFC vice-president for Asia, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa, and Bernard Sheahan, IFC director for Infrastructure Advisory, expressed their satisfaction over the IFC’s advisory in a statement, said a press release.
   The advisory facility will start operations with an initial $20 million pool of the fund, of which the IFC’s contribution is $5 million.
   It will work closely with the government agencies at the national, state and municipal levels to help and create model public-private partnerships in newer sub sectors and to enhance the access to the infrastructure services across the South Asia region.

From taking fewer taxi rides to eating out less and shortening shower time, residents of affluent Singapore are trying to cope with inflation, which has soared to 26-year highs. Rising costs of housing, food, and transport have eaten into family budgets of Singaporeans as well as the large number of expatriates working in the city-state, consumers and analysts said.
   Except for the ultra-rich, the impact of the sharp price increases has cut across social classes in one of Asia’s wealthiest nations, they said.
   Government figures show Singapore’s annual inflation was at 6.7 per cent in March, the highest since 1982, boosted by higher costs of food, transport, communications and housing.
   The figure is more than double the inflation rate in Malaysia and higher than that of the Philippines, Hong Kong and Australia. Unlike bigger countries in the region, Singapore imports most of its needs.
   ‘When the inflation rate is high, it affects everybody,’ said Serena, a businesswoman who lives near the prime Orchard Road shopping and would only give her first name.
   Serena said even affluent families like hers have had to adjust to the rising costs by eyeing grocery prices more closely, using the car less and eating in fancy restaurants only on special occasions.
   ‘You have to differentiate between needs and wants, what is necessary and what is not necessary. If you can get something cheaper, you don’t have to go for branded (luxury) items,’ she told AFP.
   While soaring inflation in developing countries, amid a global food crisis, has left many struggling to feed their families, Singaporeans are dealing with the impact of price hikes in their own ways.
   For Janice Tan, 35, who works at a travel agency, the soaring prices have forced members of her family to shower only once a day to cut their water bill. Water used to rinse vegetables is recycled to flush the toilet.
   To reduce the electric bill, Tan said she told her maid to iron only office clothes — and just the parts that are visible.
   ‘It’s a big deal for Singapore in that we have never had inflation higher than three per cent,’ said Euston Quah, head of the economics division at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
   ‘It hits the poor badly because the poor spend maybe 40, 50 per cent of their income on food,’ he said.
   Quah sees inflation eventually easing to around 4.5 to 5.5 per cent this year, while the government has forecast 2008 economic growth forecast of 4.0 to 6.0 per cent.
   Amin Sorr, 65, who works with a shipping firm, said life has become harder, especially for those earning less.
   With a monthly salary of 3,000 Singapore dollars (2,200 US), Sorr said he can cope, but friends pulling in 2,000 dollars or less are struggling.
   ‘I know a lot of friends who have problems with their water bills... and even personal credit lines.’
   Local charities say rising food prices are also driving more Singaporeans, especially poor senior citizens, to join queues for free meals.
   Salamah Salim, 40, who runs a food stall on the fringes of the business district, said: ‘Our expenses on food and rice have more than doubled over the past year. Rice and oil have risen tremendously.’
   Even expatriate professionals, particularly those with less generous housing allowances and other benefits, have been hit.
   As apartment rents surged, some moved their families from condominiums that come with swimming pools, gyms and barbecue pits to cheaper government-built flats without such resort-style amenities.
   ‘They raised our rent by 150 per cent after our contract expired late last year,’ said a Filipino computer engineer, who transferred from a gated condominium to a government-built high-rise in the suburbs.
   ‘I know several friends who have also made similar moves or are planning to move out once their leases expire,’ he said, requesting anonymity.

Workers at one of Britain’s biggest oil refineries started a two-day strike Sunday, forcing the closure of a major North Sea pipeline and triggering panic-buying of petrol.
   The walkout by around 1,200 workers began at 6:00am (0500 GMT) at the Grangemouth refinery, west of Edinburgh, while the neighbouring Forties pipeline was closed down around the same time, operator BP said.
   The key pipeline brings more than 700,000 barrels of crude oil ashore every day and supplies around 40 per cent of Britain’s oil and gas plus international markets. It cannot function without power and steam from Grangemouth.
   The walk-out, organised by trade union Unite, comes in a row over pensions. Staff and families held a demonstration Sunday outside Grangemouth, which could take weeks to get fully up and running again after the strike.
   Britain’s main opposition Conservative Party has warned the strike will hit world oil prices, while the ruling Labour Party is urging calm and says there are enough stocks to last through the strike.
   Many motorists, particularly in Scotland and northern England, are rushing to the pumps to try and stock up, despite official reassurances there is enough in reserve to go round if people keep calm.
   Some petrol stations have introduced rationing or price hikes while others have run dry.
   ‘There is plenty of petrol and diesel in Scotland to meet demand during this period of time,’ Business Secretary John Hutton said.
   ‘But of course there is going to be a challenge if people change the way that they consume fuel.’
   The Scottish government, led by the Scottish National Party, is shipping around 65,000 tonnes of fuel — mostly diesel — in from Europe to keep supplies replenished during the action.
   This should be enough to last about ten days.
   Offshore oil industry body Oil and Gas UK has urged politicians to intervene in the dispute, saying the pipeline closure will cost the economy 50 million pounds (63 million euros, 100 million dollars) per day in lost production.
   ‘It is now time for the UK government at the highest level to step in and take all the necessary actions to ensure that the country is not held to ransom in this manner,’ said chief executive Malcolm Webb.
   Alan Duncan, business spokesman for the Conservatives, warned that the closure would hit world oil prices.
   ‘The interdependence of our North Sea oil production and the refinery...has implications for global oil prices,’ he told Sky News television.
   ‘So world oil prices have gone up and we’re going to see local oil prices and petrol prices going up.’
   On Friday in London, Brent North Sea crude for June rose two dollars to 116.34 a barrel after earlier crossing the key 117 dollar mark.
   Some 70 oil fields feed into the Forties pipeline. Around two-thirds of oil from the pipeline is immediately exported.
   North Sea oil platforms could be forced to shut down due to the action, a BP spokesman said, adding they would likely take a few days to get up and running again afterwards.
   It is the first time in more than 70 years that a British refinery has been shut down due to a strike.
   Prime minister Gordon Brown has said there is no need for industrial action and urged both sides to return to the negotiating table.
   The dispute comes at an awkward time for Brown, ahead of London mayoral and local elections on Thursday in which opinion polls suggest his governing Labour Party could struggle.

The World Bank predicted on Sunday that persistent Israeli restrictions on economic life in the Palestinian territories will lead to sluggish growth this year despite nearly 7.7 billion dollars in foreign aid.
   A report by the bank on the implementation of reforms in the Palestinian economy painted a bleak picture particularly for the besieged Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where Israel maintains a crippling blockade.
   ‘The private sector revival required for a virtuous cycle of growth has not been realised due to continued restrictions on movement and access,’ the report said.
   It found no GDP growth in 2007 and estimated only three per cent growth in 2008, which because of population growth ‘leaves per capita incomes static if not lower than the previous year.’
   At a Paris donor conference in December, 84 states together pledged 7.7 billion dollars to support a two-year economic reform programme designed by Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank economist.
   The plan has ‘achieved some important milestones’ but remains hampered by the hundreds of Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks scattered across the occupied West Bank, the report said.
   Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said his country supports taking steps to improve daily life in the West Bank but said the roadblocks were necessary to prevent Palestinian attacks inside Israel.
   ‘We might get a nice headline in the newspaper on day one, but on day two we could get a new series of suicide bombings’ that could undermine the peace process, he told AFP.
   At the end of March Israel pledged to remove some 50 of the nearly 600 roadblocks across the West Bank, but a UN agency that monitors roadblocks said most of the barriers that were removed were of little or no significance.
   The report put unemployment in the occupied West Bank at 23 per cent, and as high as 33 per cent in the Gaza Strip, which has been under a punishing Israeli embargo since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June.
   The Gaza unemployment rate ‘is likely to become much higher as the layoffs in the industrial sector become permanent,’ the report said, adding that more than 35 per cent of the Strip’s 1.5 million residents live in ‘deep poverty.’
   Deep poverty is defined by the World Bank as a budget of some 500 dollars a month for a family of six.
   Gaza’s industrial sector, which once generated more than 50 per cent of the territory’s jobs, has been decimated by the sanctions, leading to the suspension of 96 per cent of industrial operations, the report said.
   When Hamas seized power in June 2007, ‘about 6,500 (people) worked in the furniture sector, and 25,000 in the garment sector. As of January 2008, these numbers dropped to 75 and zero, respectively’ it said.
   Israel has blamed Gaza’s economic woes on the Islamist movement, which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state and has launched several attacks against Gaza border crossings in recent weeks.
   ‘We have no doubt that the population of the Gaza Strip pays a severe price for the extremism of the Hamas regime,’ Regev said, adding that Israel was still supplying vital humanitarian aid to the territory.
   ‘It is Hamas which continues to target the crossings... It’s almost as if they want to see this sort of suffering.’

Czechs are in pole position to overturn decades of post-war economic decline and stagnation to become the first citizens of a former Communist bloc country to attain Western levels of prosperity.
   Catch-up with the West can be achieved within a decade, according to the latest upbeat report on the Central European country published by the 30-strong OECD this week.
   ‘The gap could close within a decade,’ the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted.
   That step, coming after the Czech Republic overtook Portugal’s economic performance in 2004, the same year it entered the European Union, would be a landmark for a country that was an economic powerhouse on the level of Belgium before WWII but slipped into relative decline behind the iron curtain.
   The OECD scenario for Czechs to have the same purchasing power as the average consumer in the 15-member eurozone by 2018 is based on sustained growth of 5.0 per cent a year for the small, export-oriented country.
   The level in Western countries lags behind at 2.0 per cent.
   Many local analysts see that scenario as entirely plausible, give or take a year or two, although most are hesitant about supporting such sustained, high growth for the Czech economy given current global uncertainty.
   ‘We see convergence in around 2021 to 2022,’ Patria Finance analyst Tomas Vlk told AFP, adding that Czech economic growth would likely fall to 3.0-3.5 per cent in 2009 before climbing to around 4.0 per cent.
   ‘It is a very possible scenario,’ added Raiffeisenbank analyst Ales Michl. He said the key factor fueling growth was fact that local companies are ploughing back their profits as investments at record levels rather than distributing them to shareholders.
   The investment total reached around 125 billion koruna ($7.95b) in 2007 and is set to rise even further this year, based on figures drawn from the Czech National Bank, he said.
   ‘Investments are a lot higher than dividends and that is the real factor for future growth,’ Michl added.
   Vlk says Czech momentum was fuelled by a massive influx of foreign investment that started around 2000 and was boosted by a wave of major privatisations.
   While Czechs head the race for convergence with the West, GDP per person in the country of just 10.2 million is already 75 per cent of the eurozone average, neighbours Poland and Slovakia are also closing the gap.
   Only Hungary, whose leftist government is trying to pare back a ballooning public deficit with measures that have curbed economic growth, is heading in the opposite direction, according to an OECD report on the country released in April.
   Slovakia, profiting from economic reforms and a wave of foreign investment that earned it the description ‘tiger economy,’ overtook Hungary in 2006 for second place among Central European catch-up economies.

Even as an economic storm intensifies, the US Federal Reserve is likely near the end of its interest rate-cutting cycle with policymakers awaiting the impact of a massive stimulus in the pipeline, analysts say.
   The Federal Open Market Committee headed by chairman Ben Bernanke is widely expected to trim its federal funds rate by a quarter point to 2.0 per cent at a two-day meeting concluding Wednesday, say economists.
   But some Fed-watchers say this may be the last cut for some time.
   Although the economy is believed to be barrelling toward recession, a number of steps have been taken to mitigate the downturn.
   The Fed has already slashed rates by three full percentage points since September, and the impact of those cuts likely will take several months to be felt in the economy.
   Additionally, a 168-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan approved by Congress and enacted by President George W. Bush kicks in soon with the government sending rebate checks to tens of millions of households in an effort to boost consumer spending.
   In view of the stimulus in the pipeline and worries about resurgent inflation, the Fed is likely to be more cautious about additional cuts, say analysts.
   Peter Berezin, global economist at Goldman Sachs, says he believes the Fed does not want to go lower than two per cent, an interest rate that would provide considerable stimulus to the lagging US economy.
   ‘We expect this to be the last cut, but the Fed will be flexible in responding to economic conditions,’ Berezin said.
   ‘Obviously if the turmoil resurfaces, they will be apt to cut rates again. But barring that, they would like to stabilize rates.’
   Deutsche Bank economist Mustafa Chowdhury said the Fed must be concerned about destabilizing effects of a further fall in the dollar that could result from more rate cuts.
   ‘The falling dollar and rising inflation increases the likelihood that the Fed is near the end of its easing cycle,’ he said in a note to clients.
   Chief economist John Ryding at Bear Stearns said the Fed has widely opened up credit to the brokerage sector and banks and in doing so ‘massively reduced the systemic risk of a financial meltdown.’
   As a result, he sees ‘a significant downshifting in the pace of interest-rate reduction.’
   ‘The US appears to have slipped into recession, which is likely to keep the Fed wanting to lean further against growth headwinds with monetary ease,’ Ryding said.
   ‘However, the inflation story continues to deteriorate and, with oil almost at 120 dollars per barrel, the Fed’s hope that falling oil prices will ease inflation pressures looks something of a remote one at the present time. In short, fears of inflation are likely to limit the Fed’s generosity on the rate front and we only expect a quarter-point cut on April 30.’
   Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight, said the Fed may want to take out more insurance against an economic meltdown and offer more rate cuts, albeit at a more gradual pace.

The Greho Naksha Holdings Limited and the Scan Cement have signed a corporate deal at a ceremony held in the Dhaka city recently.
   Md Kamruzzaman, managing director of Greho Naksha Holdings, and Ramakanta Bhattacharjee, director, marketing, sales and IT, HeidelbergCement Bangladesh Ltd, inked the agreement, said a press release.
   Quazi Shafayet Hossain, marketing and sales manager, SM Masud Iqbal, assistant sales manager, of the HeidelbergCement Bangladesh Ltd, and Col (retd) Firdous, chairman of Greho Naksha Holdings, were present on the signing occasion.
   According to the deal, Greho Naksha Holdings will exclusively use the ScanCement in its construction works.

The Grameenphone Limited and the Mutual Trust Bank Limited signed a deal on complete communication facility under the GP business solutions package at a function held in the Dhaka city recently.
   Kazi Md Shafiqur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, and Laszlo Barta, head of sales of Grameenphone, inked the deal, said a press release.
   Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, deputy managing director, AKM Shameem, executive vice-president, Nurul Islam, executive vice-president of Mutual Trust Bank, and Saad M Faizal Karim, head of corporate key accounts of Grameenphone, were also present on the occasion.

Berliners went to the polls Sunday to vote in a referendum on plans to save the German capital’s historic Tempelhof airport, the hub of the Berlin airlift, from closure in October.
   The vote was organised by backers of the continued operation of the airport just outside the city centre, one of the oldest in Europe.
   About 2.4 million people are called to the ballot, which is not legally binding.
   However a strong ‘yes’ turnout could put pressure on the city-state’s government to reverse its decade-old decision to shut down the facility ahead of the opening of an expanded international airport south of Berlin in late 2011 known as BBI.
   The centre-left Berlin government has vowed to push forward with its plans to shut down Tempelhof regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s vote, saying a reversal could threaten investment in the cash-strapped city.
   ‘Those who are tampering with the closure of Tempelhof are endangering BBI,’ the economy minister of the city-state Harald Wolf said.
   But conservatives, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are calling for the airport to be kept open for business commuters at least until 2011.
   After Berlin was split into east and west following World War II, the Allies ferried hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food, coal and other supplies, mainly into Tempelhof, in a virtually non-stop airlift when the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in 1948.
   Even after the blockade was lifted, shipments continued until September of that year to build up a surplus in case of a renewed attempt by Joseph Stalin to starve West Berlin into submission.
   Berliners who were children at the time also fondly recall sweets floating down to the ground when ‘candy bomber’ pilots tossed down small bundles from their cockpits with handkerchief parachutes.
   The polls close at 1600 GMT. Preliminary results are expected Sunday evening.

The Australian government Sunday denied a report Chinese firms have been told to withdraw from investing in Australian mining companies while it reviews foreign investment rules.
   ‘There’s been no suggestion that China or any other investor should back off,’ Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said.
   A report last week said that at least 10 Chinese companies had pulled back their foreign investment applications under pressure from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government.
   The government had made it clear, in private, to the potential investors it wanted more time to consider the national
   interest implications of greater foreign ownership of the resources industry, The Australian said.
   The Chinese companies had been advised to resubmit their applications to the Foreign Investment Review Board at a later date, the newspaper said.
   But Ferguson said state-owned Chinese firms were treated no differently than any other foreigners seeking to buy into the mining sector.
   ‘As China makes investments, some will be rejected, some will be changed to meet our national interest test,’ he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
   ‘That’s no different to previous investments by companies out of key markets such as Japan and Korea.’
   Ferguson however would not rule out changes to Australia’s foreign investment rules to take into account the nature of China’s state-owned investors.
   ‘The world generally, not only about potential Chinese investments but also sovereign wealth funds generally, is having a close look at these issues.’
   China’s insatiable hunger for resources to fuel its rapidly-growing economy has driven a mining-backed boom in Australia in recent years.

Key Asian currencies ended the week mixed against the dollar following forecasts that the US Federal Reserve may soon end its interest rate-cutting cycle and after an inflation hike in Australia.
   The yen slipped to an eight-week low against the dollar on growing prospects that the current round of cuts in US interest rates may be over in the near future.
   It touched the week’s low of 104.74 to the dollar before closing daytime trading at 104.70-72 to the dollar on Friday, down from 102.46-49 to the dollar a week earlier.
   The Japanese currency rallied to 102.78 to the dollar at one point on Tuesday but it fell back as the greenback was bought on unexpected firmness in Japanese share prices.
   Market players were awaiting a policy meeting of the decision-making US Federal Open Market Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Australian dollar is expected to consolidate next week after hitting a 24-year high against the greenback when a surprise spike in inflation fuelled expectations of an interest rate rise, dealers said.
   The Australian dollar was trading at 94.64 US cents at 5.00 pm Thursday, well up on the previous week’s 93.81 US cents. Financial markets are closed in Australia Friday for a public holiday.
   The currency soared to 95.41 US cents after figures released Wednesday showed annual inflation at 4.2 per cent.
   The New Zealand dollar ended a holiday shortened week on Thursday at 79.40 US cents, slightly up from 79.10 US cents the previous Friday.
   The kiwi traded higher during the week until Thursday when the central bank said it would leave the official interest rate at 8.25 per cent.
   ‘There was an underlying telegraph to the market that there was a softening ahead,’ said ANZ Bank senior dealer Mark Elliott.
   The yuan closed at 7.0109 to the dollar Friday on the exchange-traded market, compared with Thursday’s close of 6.9936, and a closing price of 6.9931 to the dollar the week before. On the over-the-counter market, it ended at 7.0100 to the dollar against 6.9970 the previous day.
   The central bank had set the yuan central parity rate at 6.9949 to the dollar Friday, compared with 6.9890 on Thursday.
   The US-pegged Hong Kong unit was trading at 7.7938 to the dollar from 7.793 a week earlier.
   the indonesian rupiah ended the week’s trading at 9,225/9,235 to the dollar compared to 9,190/9,195 to the dollar a week earlier.
   The Philippines peso fell to 42.04 to the dollar on Friday afternoon from 41.91 on April 18. The Singapore dollar was at 1.3588 Singapore dollars on Friday from 1.3516 the previous week.
   The South Korean Won strengthened to 996.0 won per dollar Friday, compared with 1,000.7 won a week earlier, as the local stock market rose three per cent over the past week.
   The Taiwan Dollar fell 0.18 per cent in the week to April 25 to close at 30.340 against the US dollar. The local currency closed at 30.284 a week ago.
   The Thai Baht fell slightly against the dollar this week as the US unit rose against some other regional currencies and local importers purchased dollars, dealers said.
   The Thai baht closed Friday at 31.69-70 baht to one dollar compared to last week’s close of 31.42-45.

Profit
   Delta Brac Housing
   As per audited accounts as on June 30 the profit after tax of the company was Tk 134.30 million and EPS was Tk 56. Based on above EPS and closing price as on April 24 the P/E ratio of the company would be 27.91.
   
   Dividend
   BGIC
   The board of directors has recommended 17.50 per cent stock dividend for the year 2007. The AGM will be held on June 29 at 10:30am at the Dhaka Ladies Club, Eskaton Garden Road, Dhaka. The record date is May 21.
   
   Eastern Insurance
   The board of directors has recommended 20 per cent stock dividend for the year 2007. The AGM will be held on June 24 at 11am at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, Dhaka. The book closure: May 28 to June 24.
   
   Net Asset Value
   Grameen Mutual Fund One
   On the close of operation on March 31 the fund has reported Net Asset Value of Tk 27.55 per share against face value
   of Tk 10 whereas net assets of the fund stood at Tk 46,83,97,653.
   
   Aims 1st Mutual Fund
   The close of operation on March 31, 2008, the fund has reported net asset value of Tk 2.59 per share against face value of Tk 1 whereas net assets of the fund stood at Tk 43,44,49,082.
   
   Transaction
   Keya Cosmetics
   Khaleque Knitting and Garments Ind (Pvt) Ltd, one of the
   corporate sponsors of the company has further reported that it has completed its sale of 10,00,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through the stock exchange as announced earlier.

Treasury bills
auction held
The 17th auction of the Treasury bills of different maturities was held on Sunday. Tk 585 crore, Tk 274.40 crore and Tk 205.40 crore, in total Tk 1064.80 crore, were offered respectively for the 28-Day, 91-day and 182-day bills. Of them, Tk 165 crore, Tk 29.40 crore and Tk 53.40 crore, in total Tk 247.80 crore, were accepted respectively for the 28-Day, 91-day and 182-day bills. Tk 335 crore, Tk 220.60 crore and Tk 96.60 crore in grand total Tk 652.20 crore, were devolved to Primary Dealers for the 28-day, 91-day and 182-day bills respectively. The ranges of the implicit yield of the accepted bids were 7.37-7.46 per cent, 7.71 per cent and 7.95-7.96 per cent per annum respectively, said a BB press release.
— New Age

$3.1m Pak investment in
Ctg EPZ
Pakistani company Majum Knit Limited is to set up a Knit Composite Industry with an outlay of $ 3.1 million in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone. This 100 per cent foreign owned company will invest about Tk 21 crore and will produce knitting, knit/woven garments, sweater and home textiles, said a release of BEPZ. The company will also create employment opportunity for 636 Bangladeshi including four foreign nationals. An agreement to this effect was signed between the Bagnladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and the Majum Knit Limited in BEPZA Complex, in Dhaka on Sunday.
— BSS

NDC delegation
visits CCCI
A 45-member delegation of the National Defence College visited the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry and exchanged views with its members on Sunday. The Commandant of the NDC, Lieutenant General Abu Tayab Mohammed Jahirul Alam, led the delegation when trainees at NDC from India, China, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Srilanka and Sudan were present. The CCCI president, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, vice-president Mahabub Alam, FBCCI director Amirul Hoque, CCCI directors Sayad Jamal Ahmed, Nurun Newaj Salim, Mahfuzul Hoque Shah and Nasiruddin Chowdhury were present among others during the exchange of views.
— New Age