Bangladesh will receive $1.15 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the third installment of a multibillion dollar loan scheme.
A staff-level agreement has been achieved between an IMF team and the government of Bangladesh over the policies needed to complete the second review under the ECF/EFF/RSF arrangements, the international lender reported in a news statement today.
Approximately $932 million under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF)/Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and approximately $220 million under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) will become available upon completion of the second review. This implies that Bangladesh will have access to around $1.15 billion upon the board’s approval.
The third chapter was released today, marking the end of Chris Papageorgiou’s mission team’s 15-day stay to Bangladesh. In the framework of the second program review, economic and financial policies were covered during the visit.
“The authorities have made significant progress on structural reforms under the IMF-supported programme, including the implementation of a formula-based fuel price adjustment mechanism for petroleum products,” Papageorgiou said in a statement.
However, higher-than-anticipated ripple effects from tighter global financial conditions, as well as persistently high international food and commodity prices and local vulnerabilities, have resulted in dwindling foreign currency (FX) reserves and consistently high inflation. This has made macroeconomic difficulties more complicated and increased economic pressures.”
