The outlook for the global base metals industry remains stable, said the Investors Service of Moody’s, an international credit rating agency, in a report released yesterday.
Average prices for aluminum, copper, nickel and zinc will remain near 2013 levels in the next 12 to 18 months, but will continue to show volatility, said the Moody’s report entitled “Slow Global Recovery Will Keep Base Metals Prices Range Bound.” Global demand for base metals, however, will grow modestly, and “recovery will be uneven,” Moody’s said, adding that Industrial production will remain the main driver of growth. Geologically, demand will grow at mid-single-digit rates in Asia, improve slowly in United States and Latin America, but remain sluggish...
Due to the ongoing political impasse, the country’s RMG sector losses in billions of taka every day. Foreign apparel orders worth $3.96 lakh were cancelled while the exporters spent $3.08 lakh on air shipment during the first three days of the current month, according to the data collected by BGMEA’s research and development team.
The research unit collected data from 10 exporters to assess the overall losses caused by the blockade. Many small factory owners may go bankrupt due to failing shipment on time.
To help the exporters recover their losses due to ongoing political unrest, the central bank has slashed 1.0 per cent interest on its export development fund (EDF) scheme for the next six months.
Under the amended rules, exporters are allowed to get such foreign currency loan through commercial banks on payment of 1.50 per cent interest instead of 2.50 per cent earlier.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued a circular in this connection Sunday and asked the commercial banks to follow the revised interest rate on the EDF scheme from the date of issuance of this circula...
