IMF’s DMD to arrive Dhaka on 14 Jan to finalise $4.5b loan

Staff Reporter :
A high level delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by its Deputy Managing Director (DMD) and ex-Liberian Minister Antoinette Monsio Sayeh is likely to arrive in Dhaka on January 14 on a five-day visit ahead of signing a $4.5 billion loan deal between the Washington based lender and Bangladesh.
Bangladesh applied for the loan to IMF last July to deal with the global recession and the negative impact on the country’s overall economy and the foreign exchange crisis. The IMF has agreed to consider Bangladesh’s loan proposal subject to conditions.
According to multiple sources, the IMF DMD will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder, Finance Secretary Fatima Yasmin and Economic Relations Department Secretary Sharifa Khan.
Earlier from October 26 to November 9, 2022, a team from IMF led by Rahul Anand (Bangladesh’s mission chief) visited Bangladesh to discuss the loan issue. The IMF team met the officials of the Bangladesh Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Energy Division, BBS, the Planning Ministry, BSEC, NBR, and BERC to know the latest economic situation.
In October, 2022, the IMF delegation and Bangladesh authorities reached a preliminary agreement, subject to IMF board approval, to support the country’s economic policies with about $ 3.2 billion under extended credit facility and extended fund facility as well as $ 1.3 billion under resilience and sustainability facility.
A team led by Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder met with the IMF on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF annual meeting in Washington last October. After the meeting, the governor told reporters that Bangladesh would get a loan from the IMF.
As part of this, the IMF DMD is arriving in Dhaka to review the update and finalize the loan deal with Bangladesh.
Earlier on November 9, 2022, the government reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.5 billion loan programme, putting to bed all suspense on whether a deal would be struck with the multilateral lender at all.
The amount would be disbursed over a 42-month period, with the first instalment expected in February this year.
The first instalment would be $447.8 million, followed by six equal instalments of $659.18 million.
The interest rate would be about 2.2 percent. Of the $4.5 billion, $1.3 billion can be repaid over a 20-year horizon with a grace period of 10 years. The remaining amount must be paid back within 10 years; the grace period for a portion of the sum is 3.5 years and for another portion 5.5 years.
This would be Bangladesh’s 13th loan from the Washington based multilateral lender, with the last package taken in 2012.