A raft of issues including the price spiral of essentials, famine-like situation in the northern region and inflation that sparked uproar in recent months could have been better handled if the council performed, sources remarked.

They pegged the inactivity of the council as an example of the insincerity of the government in implementing various strategies and schemes under pressure from donors.

Headed by Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman, the council is mainly supposed to review the consistency of macro-economic policies, growth, inflation and revise limits and targets set during budget formulation.

"The council could not hold any meeting so far because it is still taking preparation," said a high official of the finance ministry.

"This is a council first of its type in Bangladesh."

The council is likely to sit in its first meeting sometime in December, he added.

But sources contradicted his view, saying the council did not require the 'so-called preparations' to meet.

The nation faced some major problems since the formation of the council, a commerce ministry official said, adding: "When the prices of onion skyrocketed, the ministry proposed to the finance ministry in August to lower onion tariff."

"But the finance ministry sat on the proposal until November when the price spiral provoked a public outcry."

"The situation could have been easily avoided had there been better co-ordination between the ministries," he observed.

A Planning Commission official blamed monga or near-famine in the northern region on the lack of coordination, saying it could have been avoided if the council had acted properly.

"We seldom heard of monga in previous years because of government's Food For Work programme."

"This year, the government converted the programme into Money For Work scheme for even a better impact. But the coordination was untimely and the programme reached the area after monga took a serious turn in early November," he added.

The council was formed by amending the Bangladesh Bank Order on back of the realisation by the government and donors that lax coordination was eating into the economy.

The council brought together the commerce minister, Bangladesh Bank governor, finance secretary, internal resources secretary and planning commission (programming) member.

One of the key areas of the council's responsibility was to monitor the implementation of the budget.

The budget is placed before parliament in June and after approval no-one usually monitors its implementation.

The council is supposed to receive data relating to monetary expansion and government borrowing from banks and assessment on the impact of government economic policies on monetary aggregates and balance of payments from the central bank.

The commerce ministry will bring the impact of trade and tariff policies on the economy to the notice of the council.