Dhaka, Sept. 30 -- Bangladesh Bank has held its policy rate steady at 9.5 percent for the second quarter of the fiscal year, keeping all other monetary policy targets unchanged from the previous statement.

The central bank unveiled the policy for October-December on Wednesday, with Deputy Governor Habibur Rahman setting out the targets at a media briefing at 3pm.

The rate has stayed unchanged since July, when the central bank trimmed it by 50 basis points from 10 percent -- the level set in its last policy statement, in June.

Habibur said the current level remained relatively high compared with those of Bangladesh's peer countries.

He described the current monetary policy stance as somewhat contractionary, or tight, given the level of...