25/04/2012
The Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday received $141 million, the first instalment of the loan the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had approved on Apr 11.
The Bangladesh Bank general manager (governor secretariat) A F Asaduzzaman told bdnews24.com that the central bank's foreign reserve touched $10.15 billion following the receipt.
According to the central bank, foreign reserve was just above $10 billion by the end of Tuesday.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, the forex reserve was around $9.86 billion on last Thursday. It crossed the 10-billion mark on Monday as remittance flow from expatriates increased.
On Apr 11, the IMF executive board had nodded the loan of about $987 million under extended credit facility arrangement after Bangladesh swallowed 'a not-so-sweet reform prescription' from the global lender.
The amount would be disbursed in instalments over three years.
Even after a series of power price hikes as prescribed by IMF, the global lender sounded far from happy over the pace of such action.
"Prolonged delays in adjusting fuel, electricity, and fertilizer prices and unanticipated increases in import-related costs could exert additional pressure on the fiscal and external positions," the IMF said in a statement after approving Bangladesh loan.
Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman in an instant reaction at that time described IMF's credit approval as a welcome development for Bangladesh.
He thought that it would change the mindset of other donors and would have a positive impact on foreign investment. Most importantly, the IMF credit would help to handle the balance of payments problem, he had said.
Bangladesh had been negotiating with IMF for over a year to get the loan under the ECF arrangement to cope with the on-going balance of payments problem that stood at negative $978 million in Jul-Nov period of the current fiscal.
It was negative $584 million at the same period of the last fiscal.
The ECF arrangement is designed to helping efforts to "restore macroeconomic stability, strengthen the external position, and engender higher, more inclusive growth".