Bangladesh, July 31 -- With the aim of maintaining control of inflation, Bangladesh Bank has announced that it will continue to implement a contractionary monetary policy for the first half of the new fiscal year, keeping the policy interest rate unchanged while further reducing the credit growth target in the private sector.

The central bank said that the repo rate will remain at 10 percent from July to December this year. BB Governor Ahsan H Mansur had previously said that the rate would not be decreased until the inflation rate fell below 7 percent.

Banks can borrow money for a single day at the repo rate. As such, it is known as a major policy tool in the banking sector and the interest rate charged on it is also known as the policy...