Shawdesh Desk:

The Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, arrives in Dhaka today for a 5-day visit.

She will stay in Dhaka till January 18. During her visit, Sayeh will meet with the prime minister, finance minister, governor of Bangladesh Bank and other senior officials of the government.

According to finance ministry sources, Sayeh is coming to Dhaka from Delhi after completing her current Indian visit.

The IMF DMD will visit Padma Bridge on January 18. A meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled for January 16. Sayeh will report to the IMF headquarters regarding the $4.5 billion loan for Bangladesh to combat the global recession.

The report will be presented at the IMF board meeting. Based on this, the process of providing the loan will be finalized.

The government has reached an in-principle agreement on the loan with the IMF. Now only the formalities remain.

Some conditions have already been implemented. Electricity prices were hiked by an average of 5 percent on Thursday to implement another IMF condition.

The government will seek some time to implement some other IMF conditions.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank will announce the new monetary policy for the period from January to June of the current financial year tomorrow in accordance with the conditions of the IMF. It will give the impression of raising the loan interest rate to a limited extent. At the same time, monetary policy will be used to control the rate of inflation.

For this reason, the matter of increasing the policy interest rate of the central bank is also in the process.

The government hopes to receive the first installment of the IMF loan in February. For the first installment, $45.45 crore will be received. Thereafter one installment will be made every six months.