All banks in Bangladesh will charge maximum 9 percent interest rate in providing industrial loans from January 1 next.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Bangladesh Bank Governing Board on Tuesday, the UNB reported.

Central bank Governor Fazle Kabir presided over the meeting while Finance Secretary, Banking Division Secretary and National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman, who are also board members, attended the meeting.   

“After analysing different aspects of a report submitted by a committee formed by the central bank in this regard, the BB Governing Board took the decision,” Sirajul Islam, spokesman of the Bangladesh Bank, told UNB.

He also said the central bank will now issue a circular asking the banks to follow the new interest rate to be charged for industries, including the manufacturing sector.

All kinds of industrial loans, including working capital, will come under the new rate, Sirajul added.

The central bank’s new decision came against the backdrop of recent remarks of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal who said all the banks would follow a single-digit interest rate from the first day of the New Year.

Talking to reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on December 18, he mentioned that bank owners had promised to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to bring down the interest rate to single digit and took huge advantages with this commitment. But the promise of lowering the bank interest rate still remained unimplemented.   

Mustafa Kamal had said all banks were given time to execute the order and now they are ready to lower the interest rate. “You’ll see the result once the central bank issues the circular,” he said.

He said lowering the interest rate to a single digit will ease many tasks for the industries, especially the manufacturing sector.