E-commerce businesses have lost at least Tk 600 million during the five-day nationwide Internet blackout, according to entrepreneurs, as they said their sufferings included difficulties ranging from tracking inventory to delivering goods amid a curfew. The situation affected the small businesses most -- who mostly run operations through Facebook pages and do not have offline arrangements to receive orders.

As if floodgates opened as banks saw a rush of accountholders to withdraw cash and have other banking-related services when operations resumed Wednesday after an exigent long break. Banks reopened certain branches for a curfew-truncated time -- as did offices and businesses -- after a three-day additional general holiday after last weekend because of an unusual situation over quota-reform movement .

Stocks opened higher on Thursday, after a big fall in the previous day, as normalcy is returning gradually amid broadband internet restoration across the country. After the first hour of trading, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by more than 26 points or 0.48 per cent to 5,376 at 12:00 pm.

কারফিউ শিথিল হওয়ায় বুধবার (২৪ জুলাই) পুরোদমে শুরু হয়েছে কারখানাগুলোর কার্যক্রম, ব্যাংকগুলোও খুলেছে। ব্রডব্যান্ড ইন্টারনেটের সংযোগ ফেরার ঘটনাও চট্টগ্রাম বন্দরে কাস্টমস প্রক্রিয়া আংশিকভাবে চালু করার সহায়ক হয়েছে। এতে পাঁচ দিন পর আমদানি-রপ্তানি বাণিজ্য পুরোপুরি সচল হওয়ার আশা তৈরি হয়েছে। এসব ঘটনা রপ্তানিকারকদের জন্য অনেকটা স্বস্তি দিয়েছে, যারা দেশে সাম্প্রতিক সময়ের ঘটনাপ্রবাহের কারণে আন্তর্জাতিক ক্রেতাদের সাথে যোগাযোগ বিচ্ছিন্ন হয়ে পড়েছিলেন। এ সময়ে ইন্টারনেট বন্ধ থাকার কারণে কাস্টমস ক্লিয়ারিং ও শিপিং লিঙ্ক ব্যাহত হওয়ায়বন্দরেও জমতে থাকে রপ্তানি না হওয়া পণ্যের চালান।

Indonesia launched a long-term visa scheme on Thursday intended to attract foreign investors, President Joko Widodo said, with amounts of up to $10 million giving them a 10-year visa and access to Southeast Asia's largest economy. The five-year "Golden Visa" requires individual investors to set up a company worth $2.5 million, while a 10-year visa requires a $5 million investment.

The trade deficit increased by $1.52 billion in May. Still, the pressure on the trade balance eased slightly as imports fell by 12.6% year-on-year during July-May of FY24. The mystery of the export data mismatch was finally resolved a few days ago after the National Board of Revenue corrected its estimates of exports that had been erroneously showing inflated for the last few years. This has thumped down export figures for July-March by a huge $10 billion, showing a negative growth in reality instead of positive growth perceived so far.

The volume of excess liquidity in the commercial banks fell in May after months of growth, putting pressure on overall fund management the money market, according to the latest statistics from the central bank. The May decline affected not only excess funds but also the volume of uninvested credit held by banks. Excess liquidity refers to cash and cash-equivalent assets like treasury bills and bonds, along with cash reserves exceeding required liquid assets. Uninvested cash refers to credit available in bank vaults.

India has cut Bangladesh’s foreign aid allocations by 40 per cent in its newly announced national budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2024-25 as it has trimmed down its overall allocations, Indian newspapers reported on Wednesday. Bangladesh will receive maximum INR 1.20 billion in the next fiscal from that of INR 2.0 billion in the outgoing FY 2023-24.