BB expects to bring down inflation to 5% by next year, 7-8% by June

Inflation will come down to 5% by next year, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said today (10 February).

Giving a presentation on the monetary policy announcement for the second half of FY2024-25, he also expressed hope that inflation will come down to 7 to 8% level by June.

He also said the central bank hoped to reduce policy rate by second half of current year.

Meanwhile, the policy rate, also known as the repo rate, has been kept at 10%, showing the central bank has no intention to make money costlier further as inflation has remained on a downward trend for the last two months – December and January.

According to the Monetary Policy Statement, the main goals are to contain inflation, stabilise the forex market, while building forex reserves, and address the rapidly rising non-performing loans in banks and financial institutions.

The Monetary Policy Statement has been uploaded on the Bangladesh Bank website today.

The Standing Lending Facility (SLF) rate will remain at 11.5%, while the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate will stay at 8.5%.

In the monetary policy, the central bank addressed several downside risks, including potential escalations in various regional conflicts, a resurgence in financial market volatility that could adversely affect sovereign debt markets, and an increase in protectionist trade measures.

However, the central bank hopes that with a firm policy stance and close collaboration with key stakeholders, the inflation rate is expected to decline in the near future, making the target range of 7-8% achievable, according to the statement.

Bangladesh Bank also kept private sector credit growth unchanged at 9.8% for June 2025.