Bangladesh Bank hikes policy rate to 10% to curb inflation

Bangladesh Bank today hiked the policy or repo rate further by 50 basis points to 10 percent in its efforts to rein in inflation, which has been stubbornly high for the last two years.

The central bank said the new policy rate will be effective from October 27.

This is the 11th time since May 2022 the BB hiked the repo rate to make money expensive for banks and tame demand to curb inflation. 
Banks borrow from the central bank at the repo rate.

The latest hike comes in less than a month after the BB increased the repo rate to 9.50 percent from the previous 9 percent.

Bangladesh's consumer prices eased slightly in September and grew 9.92 percent, which was lower than previous month's 10.49 percent, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). 

Inflation in annualised rate rose to 9.97 percent last month from 9.95 percent.