IMF team to visit Dhaka in Oct for loan review

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is scheduled to visit Dhaka between 2 and 17 October to assess Bangladesh's progress in using the third tranche of its US$4.7 billion loan programme and to discuss the release of the fourth instalment, according to an official letter.
The Finance Division confirmed the proposed dates following a request from the IMF Bangladesh office.
This third review will precede the multilateral lender's annual meeting in Washington DC in the last week of October.
"We may propose the mission internally to IMF management and get the related processes started," the IMF letter mentioned.
A senior official at the Finance Division confirmed the proposed dates. "We are working on it as the interim government has just taken over," he said asking for not to be named.
The upcoming mission is expected to review Bangladesh's compliance with loan conditions, including foreign exchange reserves, revenue reforms, inflation and banking sector issues.
Bangladesh received the first tranche of US$476.2 million from the US$4.7 billion loan package approved by the IMF on 30 January 2023.
Subsequent instalments of US$681 million and US$1.115 billion were released in December 2023 and June 2024, respectively.
The IMF loan is structured under three categories: the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
Of the total, US$3.3 billion will be disbursed under the ECF and EFF, while US$1.4 billion will be allocated under the RSF.
The entire loan will be paid in seven instalments by December 2026, with a 2.2 per cent interest rate.
Dhaka requested the IMF loan in July 2022, and the lender approved the US$4.7 billion package subsequently.
The IMF is monitoring the implementation of 38 conditions to disburse the loan in stages.

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