The plan comes as $42.85b foreign funds remained unused at start of current FY
Led by Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed, the Bangladesh delegation held a series of meetings with IMF representatives in Washington.
The International Monetary Fund has no major disagreement with Bangladesh over reforms to the National Board of Revenue, one of the conditions set by the lender for the fourth and fifth instalments of the $4.7 billion loan.
The United States Trade Representative (USTR), the US government’s chief trade negotiation body, wants to see Bangladesh’s work plan on narrowing the bilateral trade gap before the Trump administration makes a call on reciprocal tariffs.
The fourth tranche of the instalment was deferred due to disagreements and now talks are going on to release two tranches at once.
Bangladesh is confronting a potential rise in poverty and inequality as stubborn inflation, job losses and a slowing economy erode household welfare, according to a World Bank report.
The government has increased the monthly salary for outsourced manpower of state-owned and state-run organisations after around six years by Tk 570 to Tk 1,102 in several cities and categories.
As much as $900 million has been on hold since 2022 in the central bank's escrow account
The government has planned to increase foreign financing by around 15 percent and reduce bank borrowing by 28 percent in the revised budget for this fiscal year to tame inflation.
The planning ministry is now set to present the project proposal to the Ecnec for final approval.
The finance ministry is likely to project that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will surpass the $500-billion mark for the first time in the upcoming fiscal year (FY), anticipating an economic rebound in FY 2025-26.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected Bangladesh’s GDP growth rate to slow to 4.3 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2025, reflecting a subdued outlook amid political uncertainty, supply disruptions and tight monetary policy.
The interim government has revised its aim for foreign exchange reserves, saying it expects to have $28.6 billion by June this year, capitalising on strong growth in inward remittances, exports, and budgetary support from development partners.
The GDP growth target may be brought down to 5.25 percent in the revised budget for the current fiscal year due to the damage caused by multiple floods and the interim government’s contractionary monetary policy to contain high inflation.
The interim government must suspend the inefficient and costly power plants and renegotiate the capacity payment terms with the private power producers as the structure incentivises inefficiency, according to the report of the task force.
Social safety net programmes, such as Open Market Sales (OMS) and Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), provided less help to the actual poor, despite the government boasting about the impact of those schemes on reducing moderate and extreme poverty, according to a taskforce report.
The Asian Development Bank has agreed to provide up to $1 billion in budget support by June, but the government must commit to several terms that include reducing the tenure and number of private bank directors.
The initially estimated costs of these projects were $11.2 billion in total
