প্রকাশ: 28/07/2022
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday it
would discuss with Bangladesh its loan request after the country became the
third in South Asia to seek such support after Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh's $416 billion economy has been one of the
fastest-growing in the world for years, but rising energy and food prices because
of the Russia-Ukraine war have inflated its import bill and the current account
deficit.
The IMF said Bangladesh was interested in its new Resilience
and Sustainability Facility aimed at helping countries face climate-change
challenges and had also requested negotiations for an "accompanying IMF
programme".
"The IMF stands ready to support Bangladesh, and the
staff will engage with the authorities on program design as per the established
policies and procedures of the Fund," an IMF spokesperson said. "The
amount of support will be part of the program design discussions."
Earlier in the day, Bangladesh's finance minister told
reporters the government would take an IMF loan only if conditions are
favourable and said the country's macroeconomic conditions were fine.
"If the IMF conditions are in favour of the country and
compatible with our development policy, we'll go for it, otherwise not,"
minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said. "Seeking a loan from the IMF does not
mean Bangladesh's economy is in bad shape."
The IMF's resilience and sustainability trust caps funds at
150 per cent of a country's quota or, in Bangladesh's case, a maximum of $1
billion.
Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper reported on Tuesday that
overall, the country wanted $4.5 billion from the IMF, including for budgetary
and balance-of-payment support.
The country's economic mainstay is its export-oriented
garments industry, which is bracing for a slowdown as key customers like
Walmart are saddled with backlog as inflation forces people to prioritise
essentials.
After garments, remittances are the second highest source of
foreign currency for Bangladesh, a country of nearly 170 million people.
Its foreign exchange reserves fell to $39.67 billion as of
July 20 - sufficient for just over five months worth of imports - from $45.5
billion a year earlier.
Its July to May current account deficit was $17.2 billion,
compared with a deficit of $2.78 billion in the year-earlier period, as its
trade deficit widened and remittances fell.
- Reuters
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