Investment in national saving certificates has hit a new record with Tk 1131.32 crore deposited in the month of September alone, just double the figure for three months (July-September) of 2008-09 fiscal year (FY), reports bdnews24.com. Never before in the past was such huge number of savings certificates sold, said officials of the national saving scheme, a government concern for promoting savings. They said saving certificates worth Tk 3,633.32 crore were sold during the last fiscal year while the figure stood at Tk 2,810 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Explaining the reasons of soaring investment in saving certificates, senior research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Jayed Bakht told the news agency that in recent times, banks have slashed interest rates on deposits while interest rate on saving certificates remained as before. He said higher interest rate on saving certificates is Wholesale Ugg Boots attracting people to invest more on them. Besides, the commercial banks might be unwilling to enhance deposits in view of their surplus liquidity (liquid assets), he pointed out. As per the latest statistics of Bangladesh Bank, saving certificates amounting to Tk 2,809.96 crore were sold in the first quarter of FY 2009-10 while the figure was Tk 758.86 crore during the same period of the last FY. The investment in saving certificates during July-September of the current FY was about four times higher than the figure of the same period of the last FY. Investment in saving certificates stood at Tk 183.51 crore in September of last year compared to Tk 1,131.32 crore in September this year. Saving certificates worth Tk 914.58 crore were sold in July of the current FY while the figure was Tk 421.24 crore during the same month of last FY. August 2009 saw investment amounting to Tk 764.06 crore compared to Tk 150.11 crore during the same month of last FY. The investments in saving certificate stood at Tk 4,174.92 crore during FY 2006-07 while the figure dropped to Tk 2,228.29 crore in 2007-08 FY. At the end of September this year, the total UGG Tasmina Braid Sandals amount of investment in saving certificates stood at Tk 52,600.75 crore while the figure was Tk 49,790.79 crore at the end of last fiscal year. Jayed Bakht cited two factors that caused investment in saving certificates to drop last year (2007-08) — one was a lack of surplus money due to price hike of daily essentials and the other was panic caused by anti-corruption drive during the regime of the last military-backed care-taker government. “With a new political government having taken office panic withered and people are now investing more on saving certificates,” he said Sounding a note of caution, Bakht said that the government might have to spend more in paying interests as a result of soaring investments in saving certificates, which may affect the budget. There are three types of saving certificates issued by the government – the five-year Bangladesh Saving certificates, 3-year saving certificates and 5-year pension saving certificates. The interest rates for the saving UGG Tasmina Sandals certificates ranged from 12 to 13 per cent over the past few years. But no banks nowadays offer more than 10 per cent interest on saving deposits.