Dhaka, Jan. 10 -- Finance Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed has said sharply reducing high bank lending rates is no easy feat, stressing the need for consistency in monetary policy.

"It is not very easy to reduce interest rates suddenly. There is the bank rate and there is the treasury bill rate. If you push one side down quickly, the other side will inflate like a balloon and may eventually burst. So consistency is required," he said.

He made the remarks on Saturday at the launch of the seventh edition of the Banking Almanac at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.

The finance advisor said policy interest rates had been raised to rein in inflation, while the removal of the long-standing 6-9 percent interest rate cap had pushed lending rates to aroun...