According to Chris Papageorgiou, head of the IMF Mission to Bangladesh, the $645 million fourth tranche of the IMF’s ongoing credit program should be accessible by February 10.
“The IMF will place the fourth tranche of the $4.7 billion loan to the board on February 5,” he said while speaking at a press briefing at the Finance Division conference room in the city. In light of the third assessment of the IMF-supported Extended Credit Facility (ECF), Extended Fund Facility (EFF), and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), a team of IMF staff members led by Chris Papageorgiou arrived in Bangladesh on December 3 to talk about financial and economic policy.
“The IMF team reached a staff-level agreement with the Bangladesh authorities on the policies needed to complete the third review under the ECF, EFF, and RSF arrangements,” Chris Papageorgiou said during the press briefing.
“The IMF’s Executive Board will consider completion of the review based on the implementation by the authorities of prior actions,” he added. According to him, the economy of Bangladesh is still struggling with enduring issues and is now in need of outside funding.
He noted that in order to address these problems, the authorities asked for an increase in IMF financial support (SDR 567.2 million, or around US$750 million) in order to preserve macroeconomic stability and make the nation more resilient to outside shocks.
He stated that in order to meet the growing external financing deficit, the authorities are dedicated to maintaining revenue-based fiscal consolidation, tightening monetary policy to limit inflation, and fully implementing exchange rate reforms to guarantee more flexibility.
In order to encourage sustainable, inclusive, and green growth, they are pursuing their climate agenda and have committed to creating a robust and competitive financial sector, he continued.
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