Page 20 - IBT Sept 2021 (1)

Snippets

August 2021

SMEs in Bangladesh

get less incentive
than their

counterparts India,
Thailand, Malaysia

The government has
allocated less incentive than
India, Thailand, and German inflation soar
Malaysia in the Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to 13-year high
sector to help them overcome
the losses caused by the Germany's annual consumer price inflation accelerated to a fresh
COVID-19 pandemic, 13-year high in August underlining growing price pressures as
according to a report of SME Foundation revealed on 31 Europe's largest economy recovers from the pandemic and
August 2021. The report styled "The Future of SMEs after the companies struggle with supply shortages, mentons a report in
Corona Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities" was disclosed at Dhaka Tribune. Consumer prices, harmonised to make them
a webinar jointly organised by SME Foundation and comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bangladesh, reports The Daily Star. (HICP), rose 3.4% compared with 3.1% in July, preliminary figures
It said India allocates 38 per cent of the total incentive from the Federal Statistics Office showed. The August reading was in
package for the SME sector, Thailand 33 per cent and line with a Reuters poll and marked the highest since July 2008,
Malaysia 24 per cent, while Bangladesh's allocation is only when the harmonised inflation rate also hit 3.4%. The national
22 per cent. The discussants suggested that the government inflation rate (CPI) even soared to 3.9% in August, hitting its highest
should increase the incentives for the SME sector and pay since December 1993 when the economy boomed following German
special attention to it. reunification.

Oil slips lower as

U.S. urges OPEC to
pump more

Oil slipped on 31 August 2021 as OPEC and allies geared up for a
meeting on 1 September 2021 amid calls from the United States to
pump more crude, although Brent still traded well above $70 per
barrel, states a report in The Dhaka Tribune. Prices were also under
pressure from concerns that power outages and flooding in
Louisiana after Hurricane Ida will cut crude demand from
refineries. Crude was also weighed down by weaker manufacturing
data from China, where factory activity expanded at a slower pace
in August compared with the previous month. Prior to the US call,
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and
allies, together known as OPEC+, had agreed to add 400,000
barrels per day to their supply each month through December.

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