Reza Mahmud :
People of the country are leaning towards savings despite increase of cost of living during the pandemic, several study reveal it.
Studies of government and private agencies have revealed that cost of living is increasing.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Bank has said that savings are increasing in spite of the expenditures of the people are hiked.
It has been found that the people’s first choice is banks for savings their money in spite of reduction of interests deposit.
Some of them choose Saving Certificates to save money others are starting to invest money in Stock Exchanges.
Bangladesh Bank sources said that bank deposits increased to Tk 98,000 crore in the first nine months of the year 2020.
Besides, people bought saving certificates of Tk 19,044 crore and 92 lakh in the first five months of the fiscal year of 2020-21.
Meanwhile, about Tk 1.50 lakh crore has been invested in the stock markets in the last six months.
The market capital of the main capital market, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), stands at Tk 5,01,709 crore after closing the transactions in the last week.
The market capital of the DSE was only Tk 3,11,775 crore six months ago in the beginning of the July last year.
Not only that, about 205 persons have whitened their black money in this period and government earned Tk 22 crore and 84 lakh from those as tax.
Banks have decreased interest rates on debt to nine percent from the April 1. For this, they also have reduced interests of deposits below six per cent. Several banks lowered their deposit interest to two percent only.
Despite such reductions of interests, banks have collected hefty deposits from remote areas across the country.
On the other hand, interest rate of savings certificates has been kept in 12 per cent yet, so the people are savings their money buying savings certificates though the government imposed 10 per cent tax on it.
“The situation of investment is not good. People have no interest to take loan. On the other hand, they are depositing money in banks. Besides, the living costs also decreased for many people who have shunned their unnecessary expenditures. They are saving in banks, buying saving certificates and investing money in stock exchanges,” said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Managing Director of Mutual Trust Bank and the former Chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh Limited (ABB).
Economists said that the people are saving their money, reducing their expenditures in the views of constant uncertainty created by the pandemic.
They said that agent banking, mobile banking and other digitalized systems make the deposit easy. As a result, the savings have been increased.
“People are facing uncertainty due to corona pandemic. On the other hand, they have no chances to expend their money for unnecessary matters and for luxury things due to the Covid-19 situation. For these, the people are leaning to save their money in different sectors,” said Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute, a private research initiative.
He, however, said, the large amount of remittance sent by the expatriates is the main reason of increasing savings in the country during the pandemic.
According to the statistics, at the end of December 2019, the total amount of deposits in banks was Tk 12,14,455 crore, in September 2020 it has been increased to 13,12,629 crore.
In other words, deposits have increased by Tk 98,174 crore in the nine months from January to September last year.
People of the country are leaning towards savings despite increase of cost of living during the pandemic, several study reveal it.
Studies of government and private agencies have revealed that cost of living is increasing.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Bank has said that savings are increasing in spite of the expenditures of the people are hiked.
It has been found that the people’s first choice is banks for savings their money in spite of reduction of interests deposit.
Some of them choose Saving Certificates to save money others are starting to invest money in Stock Exchanges.
Bangladesh Bank sources said that bank deposits increased to Tk 98,000 crore in the first nine months of the year 2020.
Besides, people bought saving certificates of Tk 19,044 crore and 92 lakh in the first five months of the fiscal year of 2020-21.
Meanwhile, about Tk 1.50 lakh crore has been invested in the stock markets in the last six months.
The market capital of the main capital market, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), stands at Tk 5,01,709 crore after closing the transactions in the last week.
The market capital of the DSE was only Tk 3,11,775 crore six months ago in the beginning of the July last year.
Not only that, about 205 persons have whitened their black money in this period and government earned Tk 22 crore and 84 lakh from those as tax.
Banks have decreased interest rates on debt to nine percent from the April 1. For this, they also have reduced interests of deposits below six per cent. Several banks lowered their deposit interest to two percent only.
Despite such reductions of interests, banks have collected hefty deposits from remote areas across the country.
On the other hand, interest rate of savings certificates has been kept in 12 per cent yet, so the people are savings their money buying savings certificates though the government imposed 10 per cent tax on it.
“The situation of investment is not good. People have no interest to take loan. On the other hand, they are depositing money in banks. Besides, the living costs also decreased for many people who have shunned their unnecessary expenditures. They are saving in banks, buying saving certificates and investing money in stock exchanges,” said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Managing Director of Mutual Trust Bank and the former Chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh Limited (ABB).
Economists said that the people are saving their money, reducing their expenditures in the views of constant uncertainty created by the pandemic.
They said that agent banking, mobile banking and other digitalized systems make the deposit easy. As a result, the savings have been increased.
“People are facing uncertainty due to corona pandemic. On the other hand, they have no chances to expend their money for unnecessary matters and for luxury things due to the Covid-19 situation. For these, the people are leaning to save their money in different sectors,” said Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute, a private research initiative.
He, however, said, the large amount of remittance sent by the expatriates is the main reason of increasing savings in the country during the pandemic.
According to the statistics, at the end of December 2019, the total amount of deposits in banks was Tk 12,14,455 crore, in September 2020 it has been increased to 13,12,629 crore.
In other words, deposits have increased by Tk 98,174 crore in the nine months from January to September last year.
