Bangladesh has committed to a sweeping overhaul of its troubled financial sector, outlining a detailed three-year roadmap as part of its latest agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
The Asian Development Bank plans to provide $1 billion in budget support to advance Bangladesh’s banking sector reforms, contingent on 25 conditions including the creation of a financial stability fund for banks facing capital shortfalls.
The government has pledged a series of sweeping reforms to meet International Monetary Fund conditions for the next instalment of its $5.5 billion loan, including a public survey to measure corruption in tax administration and a phased reduction of subsidies on electricity, fertiliser, remittances and exports.
Bangladesh must clear dues, hit steep revenue, reserve targets for next tranche
Bangladesh plans to launch a Tk 316 crore reform programme aimed at significantly speeding up project planning, approval, and implementation through the use of artificial intelligence for the first time.
The government plans to scale back its dependence on foreign loans as it seeks to mitigate threats to external debt sustainability.
Jumped to 589.5m francs in 2024 from 17.7m the previous year
For the first time, the World Bank, which traditionally provides development project loans and budgetary support, has extended its assistance through a guarantee facility to support Bangladesh in purchasing liquefied natural gas (LNG), aiming to ease pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) should take measures to prevent “second-round effects” of inflation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.
The World Bank has committed to giving Bangladesh $400 million for implementing the next five-year plan for the health sector, which is estimated to cost around $9 billion.
The decision on whether to formulate another minimum wage for garment workers after making adjustments in line with inflation will be made by April next year.
The interim government is going to formulate a specific roadmap to recover funds of the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust (BCCT), amounting to Tk 873.82 crore, that have been held up in Padma Bank since 2016.
Three advisers to the interim government of Bangladesh will meet today to discuss solutions for taming inflation, which remains high even though several initiatives have been implemented to this end.
Bangladesh has drafted the Cross-Border Digital Commerce Policy 2024, marking a significant step towards integrating the economy with the global digital marketplace as it looks to facilitate globally accepted payment methods.
The government is set to import a substantial quantity of rice and withdraw import duties to boost stock.
The interim government plans to strengthen the universal pension scheme (UPS) with the aim of bringing people from all walks of life under a sustainable social security framework.
Bangladesh recorded its lowest economic growth in the past five quarters in the last quarter of fiscal 2023-24 due to contractionary monetary and fiscal policies to tackle the dwindling forex reserves and high inflation.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is sending a team within the first week of December to review whether Bangladesh qualifies for the fourth tranche of a $4.7 billion loan programme.
