Shawdesh Desk;

The visiting International Monetary Fund mission has reminded the Bangladesh government about two unmet conditions under its $4.7 billion loan programme and also expressed worries over the runway inflation.

The IMF led by its mission chief Rahul Anand gave the reminders regarding government’s failure in keeping the forex reserves at the required level and generating revenues until June 2023 at a meeting with finance division officials on Wednesday, said officials attending the meeting.

Finance secretary Md Khairuzzman Mozumder led his team at the meeting.

Officials said the IMF highlighted that the Bangladesh Bank failed to keep the foreign exchange reserves at $24.46 billion at the end of June, while the National Board of Revenue failed to meet its condition to generate Tk 3.38 lakh crore in revenue by the same period.

This was the first day of a 16-day visit in the capital by the multilateral lender to review conditions against the disbursement of the second tranche of the loan programme due in November.

Both the conditions are important criteria for releasing the tranche worth over $700 million.

The IMF mission also met with BB governor Rauf Talukder and reviewed the overall progress of the loan programme the government agreed to carry out until May 2026.

BB spokesman Mezbaul Haque in a statement on the day said they had apprised the IMF mission of the government steps on the unmet conditions.

The BB fell short of the forex reserves target by around $4 billion as it was able to keep it at $20.47 billion, while the NBR managed to generate Tk 3.31 lakh crore till end of June.

Mezbaul Haque said the IMF mission will hold a series of meetings with other stakeholders under the loan programme in the next fortnight.

According to finance division officials IMF emphasised interest rate hikes for taming the inflation, prevailing almost at double digit over the last 14 months.

The IMF officials observed that the interest rate hike in the country is marginal compared with significant rises by other nations to fight inflation in the past one year.

The IMF officials will hold meetings with NBR today.

The finance ministry officials said the IMF did not disburse the last tranche worth more than $75 million under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility in 2006 as the then government had failed to meet some conditions.