DHAKA, Aug 07, 2025 (BSS) – With one year following the changeover of power after the fall of fascist Hasina regime last year, the commodity market has gone through a transformation with a more current stable state alongside steps towards improving the ‘ease of doing business’ situation through necessary reform initiatives.

Thanks to the prudent leadership of the interim government, led by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, the commodity market has witnessed remarkable steadiness over the last one year especially during the last two biggest festivals of Muslim Ummah, the Holy Eid-ul-Fitr and the Holy Eid-ul-Azha, due to the increased monitoring by the concerned agencies, ensuring sufficient supply of commodities and curbing extortion in various tiers, under the helm of the concerned ministries especially the Ministry of Commerce. 

“I think the market situation is now much better compared to the same period last year. The market situation is now stable over the last 12 months while there is no such concern now,” said Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman.

Talking to BSS at his office on the overall successes and operations of the Commerce Ministry and also about its reform initiatives, he said in continuing of this, the government would further strengthened its monitoring side by side the operations of the TCB would be strengthened further. “If so, I hope that there will be more positive impact in the market,” he added. 

Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman said that as part of its market monitoring, the ministry often finds it that the commodity market sometimes become unstable due to the increase in demand while the demand usually increases during the Holy Month of Ramadan and in other festivals.

He said that the Ministry of Commerce has beefed up its operations on market monitoring this year as some 28 teams have been continuously working on it while the number was 12 teams last year.

Rahman said this year drives were conducted even at the district and upazila level for ensuring strict monitoring of market going beyond the divisional level.

“Unless sufficient supply of commodities is ensured compared to the demand, it becomes tough, but Alamdulillah, the supply side was better this year alongside strict monitoring especially during the Holy Month of Ramadan and the Holy Eid Ul Azha. We achieved success in keeping the market stable,” he added.

Rahman informed that more than 400 teams remained vigil this year to keep the market of commodities stable as such presence of the concerned monitoring agencies is a big-scale deterrent in case of hiking price of commodities.

Although there was some deficit in supply of rice in the market from the last part of June to the first part of July, he, however, said that the situation has improved. “I think there is no such concern in this regard,” he added. 

Answering to a question, he said that the coverage of the TCB has been increasing gradually as its coverage is well defined benefitting some one crore family card holders.

Regarding the smart cards of TCB, he said since all the one crore families do not have smart phones for availing the essentials commodities at subsidized rates from the TCB through smart cards, the concerned authorities and district administrations are supporting them in this regard.

Alongside the regular operations of the TCB, he said that ‘truck sale’ would also be there to support the low-income group people.

Asked about the reforms in the trade and commerce operations over the last one year, Rahman said that the main reform in trade is to improve the ‘ease of doing business’ condition, which the interim government has been trying relentlessly.

In that direction, he said some amendments are being made to the import policy order, minimizing requirements in awarding certificates and permits.

“The country’s business community usually conducts the business and we from the Ministry of Commerce ensure necessary facilitation,” he added.

Rahman revealed that a large-scale reform would be setting up commercial related court in the country while the government has advanced a lot in this regard.

“A policy decision has already been taken in this regard and we’ll enter into the implementation stage,” he said, adding that a draft law is being framed to this end and after that necessary formalities, it would be done through holding ministerial meetings.

If it materializes, he said then the businessmen would be able to go to the commercial operations related court with their pressings issues.

Initially, he said that such court would be set up in Dhaka and in the divisional level with concerned District and Sessions Judges heading the courts and afterwards the operations of such court might be expanded.

About the progress in signing bilateral and multilateral trade agreements with different countries, the Commerce Secretary said that such agreement had already been signed with Bhutan while Bangladesh is also part of some multilateral agreements.

Besides, the 7th round of negotiations would begin with Japan in August for the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) while negotiations with Indonesia would also resume for striking an agreement.

“We’re also trying to ink an agreement with the UAE as TOR in this regard will be finalized while we’re also advancing negotiations with Singapore,” he added.

Apart from these, he said they are identifying some potential countries like the USA, Canada, EU, Nigeria and Australia for striking bilateral agreements.

In export diversification, the Commerce Secretary said that the country’s export volume is increasing although there are some global issues.

He said the Bangladesh team led by Commerce Adviser Sk. Bashir Uddin successfully negotiated the tariff issue with the USA. 

When asked about the reason for huge price difference between the wholesale and retail market, he said that some improvements are already evident in this regard as various meetings were held in this regard at the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and even at the Chief Adviser’s Office.

He said due to the government’s relentless efforts, the tendency of ‘unauthorized expenditure’ or commonly known as ‘extortion’ has been minimized in this regard.

Talking to BSS, General Economics Division (GED) Member of the Planning Commission Dr Monzur Hossain said the rice price is on increasing trend despite the bumper Boro production. 

“I think the government should give more attention to this to identify whether there is market manipulation or there is a gap between the demand and supply to give relief to the poor section of people,” he added.

Talking to BSS, Administrator to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Md Hafizur Rahman said that following the ouster of fascist Sheikh Hasina on August 5 last year, the market of commodities was unstable for some successive months.

But, with the passage of time and with the coordinated efforts from all concerned agencies including the Ministry of Commerce, the FBCCI and the business community, the situation became stable gradually.

He, however, said despite these, still there are some problems with the supply and prices of some essential commodities like eggs, edible oil and chicken. Supply side as well as prices of such items witness ups and downs due to various reasons including extreme heat, he added.

The gradual improvement in the stability of commodity market over the last one year was visible analyzing the general point to point inflationary trend.

In July 2024, Bangladesh's general point-to-point inflation reached 11.66 percent, a 12-year high. This was primarily driven by a surge in food inflation, which hit 14.10 percent, the highest in at least 13 years. Non-food inflation also increased, reaching 9.68 percent.

In June 2025, the point-to-point food inflation declined significantly to 7.39 percent, the lowest over the last two years. The point-to-point food inflation in May, 2025 was 8.59 percent, showed data from BBS.

Meanwhile, the non-food inflation rate also showed a declining trend reaching 9.37 percent in June, 2025 down from 9.42 percent in May, 2025.

The point-to-point inflation rate declined in both the rural and urban areas last month.