Reza Mahmud:
Business leaders credited huge local supplies for easing essential commodity prices saying seasonal vegetable items including potato and onion played a pivotal role on keeping market normal.
The experts also said reducing extortions in businesses including goods laden trucks and vessels also impacted well in the market prices.
Meanwhile several business leaders said there are still extortionists activities in businesses are remaining which have to be checked.
They said the government has to do more to tackle extortionists’ bad acts into businesses which could be fruitful to reduce commodity prices.
Officials said effective market monitoring also will be one of the good tools for containing inflations.
When contacted, Ashraf Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Riverstone Capital Limited, and former President of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) told The New Nation on Wednesday, “The adequate supply of local products including vegetables, played a vital role on curbing inflation in commodity markets.”
He said also market monitoring yet to be fruitful as other factors have a good role on inflations.
Meanwhile, Commerce Adviser Sk. Bashir Uddin on Wednesday said comfort has been restored among the consumers amid normal prices of commodities and its smooth supply chain.
He also thanked to various proactive measures by the interim government and enabling the businesses through various policy supports.
For continuing this momentum in the long-term, the Adviser said that there is a need to streamline the policy issues and thus meeting the deficits in the local production and in imports.
“There are various measures and also because of enabling further the trade operations, we’re now witnessing comfort although temporary in the market by the grace of Almighty Allah,” Sk. Bashir said.
The Commerce Adviser said this in an interview to the national news agency at his secretariat office on the current state of market situation, supply chain and the subsequent government measures to streamline the smooth operations countrywide.
“If the government wants to make this trend sustainable in the long-term there is a need to streamline the policy issues and thus meeting the deficits in the local production and in imports,” he said.
The government inherited such state of the market from a fragile position after the ouster of the Awami League government when there was a long-lasting flood, stagnancy in the economy following the July-August mass uprising last year which led to deficit in the supply chain, he added.
“When lives and livelihood of the common people came to normalcy, deficits were then evident in the demand and supply side,” the Adviser said.
“In such, the deficit was huge mostly because of the flood induced deficit and economic stagnancy induced deficit. The inflation that we witnessed during that time was totally supply-side driven,” Sk. Bashir said.
