Single digit interest rate for all loans from April 2020: Finance minister
The single digit rate will be applicable to all types of loans except credit card interest rates
The finance minister on Monday said single digit interest rate on loans will be implemented from April 2020, instead of the previously mentioned January 1.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal made the announcement after a meeting with bank directors and chief executives on Monday. The meeting was held at the office of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) at Gulshan, Dhaka.
The single digit rate will be applicable to all types of loans except credit card interest rates.
"We wanted to implement the single digit interest rate from January 1. But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina desires it for all loans, so we decided it should be implemented from April," Kamal said.
We have also decided that no banks can offer more than 6 percent interest rate for deposits, he added.
"To help implement this interest rate, government deposits will be equally distributed between the state-owned banks and private banks," the finance minister further said.
He hoped that implementing single digit rates for all loans would not impact the profits of the banks.
Previously, Mustafa Kamal had declared that only the manufacturing sector would enjoy the single digit interest rate form January and to implement this the central bank had formed a committee on December 1.