A delegation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive this week in Bangladesh to start negotiating a USD 4.5 billion loan as budget assistance.

A Bangladesh delegation led by Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder attended the IMF annual meeting held in Washington, from October 10-16, and got assurance of loan assistance. In line with this, a delegation from the IMF will visit Dhaka soon to justify the loan requirement and necessary reforms of the financial sector.

The Bangladesh Bank governor had a busy week during his Washington visit. The first meeting was held with Rahul Anand, chief of IMF Asia and Pacific Division, and his team. Another meeting with IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette M Sayeh was held on the sideline of IMF’s annual meeting, central bank and finance ministry sources said.

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Rahul Anand might lead the discussion on loan conditions in Dhaka at the end of this month. The IMF team will meet Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal during the visit.

During the visit, an agreement is likely to be signed, which usually takes a few months. The loan program will be sent to the IMF executive board. Disbursements are made after the board approves the program.

IMF's standard practice is to work closely with the authorities to come up with a program that is most relevant to the borrowing country's economic and social dynamics.

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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 to ease the forex crisis created here due to external effects from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.