Interest on bank loans stood 13 pc

Staff Correspondent : The loan interest rate has increased to the highest level after the bank lifted the 9-6 interest rate. Interest rates on loans rose further to over 13 percent as interest rates on Treasury bills rose sharply. Banks will charge 13.11% interest on loan disbursement next month.
The margin rate has been reduced by 25 basis points to 3.50 percent. Which is the maximum interest rate of the loan determined under the new system. The interest rate reduction was announced through a notification on Thursday. Currently, Bangladesh Bank sets the loan interest rate at the beginning of every month.
Bangladesh Bank has reduced the interest rate slightly. This is because the base rate for March has increased by about 1 percent since the end of February in the manner in which interest rates are currently determined.
Because of this, Bangladesh Bank has reduced the additional interest added to the base rate. Despite this, the interest rate of bank loans increased to 13.36 percent in March. Bank loan interest was 12.43 percent in February. After lifting the 9-6 interest rate on bank loans and deposits last July, the interest rate on bank loans is reaching its highest level in March.
Bangladesh Bank introduced the Smart or Six Months Moving Average Rate of Treasury Bill system from June last year to determine the interest rate of bank loans. The base interest on smart or bank loans is determined on the basis of the six-month average interest rate on government treasury bills. Bangladesh Bank publishes smart interest rate at the beginning of every month. Banks have been fixing loan interest for so long by adding an additional 3.75 percent interest to this smart interest rate. At the end of last January, the smart interest rate was 8.68 percent. At the end of February, which increased to 9.61 percent.
According to the notification of Bangladesh Bank, now the banks can add a maximum interest of 3.50 percent to the smart rate. An additional interest of 3.75 percent was added for so long. However, a maximum of 2.50 percent can be added in case of pre-shipment export credit, agricultural and rural credit. Earlier it was 2.75 percent.