Challenges of price stability, growth and employment in Bangladesh: Role of the Bangladesh Bank

EMPLOYMENT Working Paper No. 169

This study is inspired by the current debate on whether central banks, especially in the developing world, should pursue a single mandate or dual/multiple mandates. It examines the Bangladesh Bank’s (BB) aspiration to adopt a multiple mandates approach. These include, besides the objective of price stability, the promotion of “output, employment and real income”. In recent years, the BB has widened its developmental role to play its part in the national strategy of “inclusive growth”, and is seeking to model itself as a developmental central bank. According to an ILO content-analysis study of objectives and missions of central banks, Bangladesh is cited among the very few countries where the central bank has an explicit development objective.