IMF likely to approve $4.5 b loan for BD

Industry Desk: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed in principle to approve $4.5 billion loan for Bangladesh, Finance Ministry officials said yesterday.
Several Finance Ministry officials said they have received indications that the multilateral lender’s board has agreed in principle to approve Bangladesh’s loan request.
An IMF team led by Rahul Anand visited Dhaka from October 26 to November 9 to work out the details of the programme. Then IMF Vice President Antoinette Monsio Sayeh visited Bangladesh on January 14-18 and praised the economic development and social progress she witnessed during her visit.
She said it had an impact all over the world. Sayeh also congratulated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Former IMF economist Dr Ahsan H. Mansur said that is known of the visits and discussions held with the Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh Bank, National Board of Revenue, Ministry of Planning, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), and others indicates the global lender has reached an agreement to provide $4.5 billion loan to the country.
He said the first installment of the IMF loan is just awaiting formalities.
Earlier, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told the media that we are getting the loan as we wanted. A total of $4.5 billion loan will be provided to Bangladesh. This amount will be disbursed in seven installments till December 2026.
Besides, the first installment of $447.78 million will be paid in February. The remaining amount of $659.18 million will be paid in six equal installments.
The interest rate on the loan will depend on the market rate at the time of maturity, sources said. Besides, the Ministry of Finance has calculated that this rate will be around 2.2 percent.