Last update on: Wed Feb 19, 2025 04:29 AM
The International Monetary Fund’s move to disburse the fourth and fifth tranches of a $4.7 billion loan together was a mutual decision, the finance ministry said in a press release yesterday.
The fourth tranche was originally scheduled to be released in March, but it was deferred as Bangladesh could not meet some prior conditions.
According to the press release, the instalments are disbursed upon fulfilment of conditions that have been mutually agreed upon by the government and the IMF to strengthen the foundation of the economy.
“Budget support programmes are associated with the implementation of conditions, some of which require time. Hence, it was mutually decided that the two disbursements scheduled in fiscal year 2024-25 would be combined,” it said.
As such, the IMF agreed to disburse the fourth and fifth tranches together in June.
The disbursement will be made after satisfactory completion of a review scheduled for April and approval by the IMF board in June, the finance ministry added.
The IMF approved a loan of $4.7 billion in 2023, against which Bangladesh has already received three instalments amounting to $2.3 billion
The IMF approved a loan of $4.7 billion in 2023, against which Bangladesh has already received three instalments amounting to $2.3 billion, the statement said.
On Monday, Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed shared news of the deferment after attending a deputy commissioners’ (DCs) conference in the capital.
After that news made headlines, the finance ministry issued the statement.
In December last year, upon completion of the third review, Chris Papageorgiou, the chief of the IMF’s visiting staff mission, had said the proposal for the fourth tranche would be submitted before the IMF executive board on February 5.
However, the multilateral lender shifted the initial board meeting for the fourth tranche, which is likely to be $645 million, from February 5 to March 12.
After Papageorgiou visited Bangladesh from December 3 to 18 last year, the IMF said in a statement, “We are pleased to announce that the IMF team reached a staff-level agreement with the Bangladesh authorities on the policies needed to complete the third review under the ECF, EFF, and RSF arrangements. The IMF’s Executive Board will consider completion of the review based on the implementation by the authorities of prior actions.”
