IMF seeks foreign loan database information

Staff Reporter :
The visiting delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sought information of database of foreign loans, according to Economic Relation Division (ERD) of the Finance Ministry.

Besides, the delegation also wanted to know which method is used in making the database of the foreign debts, the ERD said.

The visiting team of the multilateral lending firm led by Rahul Anand, senior economist of the IMF’s Asia Pacific Department, held a meeting with the ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan at the latter’s office on Thursday.

Followed by the meeting, the ERD secretary said, “IMF delegation wanted to know about the database related to the foreign loans. We informed them that our loan repayment has so far cleared. We mainly discussed this issue in the meeting.”
Having loan repayment cleared, the delegation did not discuss it here, she added.

She further said, “They also wanted to about the method used in making loan database and we informed them Bangladesh follows the UNCTAD system.”

Wishing anonymity, an official of the ERD said that the delegation wanted to know whether Bangladesh has opened adjustment account for Russia.

It also asked about the revised development budget in the meeting, the ERD official said.

He also said that high-profiled delegation of the IMF would visit Bangladesh in October and then the policy related decision will be taken.

Getting the approved $4.7 billion loan from the IMF, Bangladesh will have to meet 38 conditions, mostly related to the financial sectors of the country. The lending firm has already disbursed first installment of the loan.

Now, it is verifying the implementation situation till last March and those to be implemented between June and September.

Besides, what initiatives are there in the upcoming budget to implement the conditions that the government has promised to implement by June 2024, will also be reviewed.

IMF approved the $4.7 billion loan proposal on January 30 this year.

The IMF has already expressed concern over implementation of different loan conditions includes mode of foreign currency reserves calculation, tax exemption and delay in reducing subsidy in various sectors.

The government, however, is taking measures to meet the conditions. The government’s adoption of a pass-through method to reduce subsidies will have a negative impact on traders and consumers. Another hike in electricity prices will increase business costs.

This would further increase commodity prices, which could further fuel the already high inflation.