A delegation from International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Dhaka this week to start negotiations on Bangladesh’s request for a US $4.5 billion loan as budgetary support, official sources said on Sunday.
The team from the Washington-based lending agency is likely to be led by Rahul Anand, chief of IMF Asia and Pacific Division, said the sources at Bangladesh Bank speaking on condition of anonymity.
Bangladesh Bank governor Abdur Rouf, now in Washington, held separate discussions with Anand and IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette M Sayeh on Bangladesh’s loan request.
The central bank governor attended the IMF annual meeting in Washington on Oct 10-16.
According to the sources the IMF has assured Bangladesh of leading up to US$4.5 billion.
The IMF team during its upcoming visit will focus their negotiations on conditions for the loan and financial reforms. The sources said an agreement is likely to be inked on the programme which will then be sent to the IMF executive board for approval. Disbursement of money starts only after the approval.
The team will meet Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal during the visit.
The IMF's standard practice is to work closely with the authorities to come up with a programme that is most relevant to the borrowing country's economic and social dynamics.
Bangladesh's economy was still recovering from the losses of the pandemic when the Russia-Ukraine war began in February, disrupting global supply chains and eventually causing inflation in many countries including Bangladesh.
The IMF loan will help Bangladesh ease the forex crisis created here due to external effects from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
