The government has taken a raft of measures to hold the price line but in reality the prices have continued to rise. One has to find the root cause for it. Nobody is questioning the sincerity of the government to get the prices down nor is one oblivious of the element of imported inflation coming into a bit of play as a result of rising global prices of food, fuel and other commodities that we have to import. But what certainly is open to question is the government's understanding and appreciation of how the conventional market forces have worked in our country. The impression has gained ground that private sector's confidence in investment has markedly declined due to the market insensitive drives of the authorities. The traditional market chain seems to have broken down. The ripple effect of hawker eviction drive and demolition of local hats and bazars still lingers.

The BDR has opened some 200 sale outlets and five wholesale centres and their prices are lower than in the open market obviously because the commodities are not changing hands from the growers' level. While they have shown the way, the pertinent question is: how can such an ad hoc measure cater to the demands of a wider population. So the answer lies in rehabilitating the displaced traders and facilitating the legitimate functioning of the business community. Law enforcers have currently being deployed for market monitoring. The middlemen should be on the retreat now. But is it happening?

To quote from the ADB quarterly update on Bangladesh: "Letting markets for necessities function normally without administrative actions that cause disruptions to the supply chain will ... be important."

The contractionary monetary policy aimed at regulating money supply should not lead to constriction of credit flow to the private sector in the interest of steadying import of essentials as well as domestic productivity.