Inflation Targeting as the Monetary Policy Framework: Bangladesh Perspective

Inflation targeting strategy has become a widely accepted monetary policy framework in many countries all over the world. Our study finds that the central bank of Bangladesh is neither inflation targeting nor does follow any other rule-guided monetary policy, rather the policy is formulated with substantial discretion under the guidelines of donor agencies. This paper provides the evidence that monetary sector of Bangladesh economy has gained considerable degree of maturity and fulfils a number of prerequisites to adopt inflation targeting strategy. Using data over 1980-2010 we estimate an error correction model in order to examine if interest rate policy could fight the inflation. This is evident that deviation in inflation from target can be corrected via the changes in interest rate. Empirical findings jointly with few descriptive statistics provide strong evidence to recommend inflation targeting as the monetary policy strategy for Bangladesh.Bangladesh, Inflation Targeting, Monetary Policy.

Is Healthier Wealthier? Evidence from Member Countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

This paper examines the association between a variety of health indicators and GDP growth rates over the period 1972-2011 using a balanced panel dataset consisting of seven members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation SAARC excluding Afghanistan We explicitly accounted for interactions between survival rates and lagged GDP levels as well as endogeneity issues The findings revealed that the survival rate and other health indicators are positively associated with GDP growth Accordingly investments that promote improvements in health outcomes in South Asian countries could potentially accelerate economic development in the regio

Convenience and short comings among paediatric cochlear implant candidates

Background: Cochlear implants have revolutionized the treatment of severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss in children. However, the convenience and shortcomings experienced by pediatric cochlear implant candidates in various settings remain understudied. This study aimed to assess the convenience and shortcomings among pediatric cochlear implant candidates in home, school, and other social settings. Methods: This was a prospective clinical study that was conducted in the Cochlear Implant (CI) Center, Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka and Chattogram, Bangladesh from July 2015 to December 2022. A total of 200 parents of pediatric cochlear-implanted children were enrolled in this study as the study subjects. A simple random sampling technique was used in sample selection. All data were processed, analyzed, and disseminated by using MS Excel and SPSS version 22.0 program as per necessity. Results: The study analyzed information collected during the study period, focusing on the convenience and shortcomings reported by the parents of cochlear implant recipients. The findings revealed that the highest level of convenience was reported in some other social settings (82.84%), followed by home (75.67%) and school (64.4%). In contrast, shortcomings were reported primarily in the home environment (63.6%), followed by school (34.6%) and other social settings (31.45%). Conclusions: In the majority of cochlear implant children, convenience is observed in some other social settings than home or school. In the majority of cochlear implant children, shortcomings are observed in their homes

Saving mobilization and its impact on economic growth: a case study on Bangladesh

This paper examines the role of saving in accelerating economic growth in Bangladesh and estimates a simultaneous equation related to this to assess the impact of various factors in determining savings and economic growth in Bangladesh with special emphasis on the impact of financial sector reforms initiated in the late 1980s. The findings reveal that the growth rate and real rate of interest have a positive impact on saving rate. Also the dummy variable (financial reform index) has a significant positive effect on saving rate indicating that the financial sector reform has ultimately enhanced saving rate in Bangladesh. Population per branch of scheduled banks, on the other hand, is negatively related to saving rate suggesting that increased availability of branches of banks can stimulate the saving tendency of people. Further, financial savings in turn, foreign direct investment and literacy rate positively affect the growth rate of the economy. Our findings also confirm the saving-growth simultaneity reflecting that saving and growth positively affect each other and go hand to hand