{"id":146554,"date":"2025-11-18T15:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/146554\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T15:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:12:09","slug":"imf-satisfied-with-bangladeshs-reform-progress-but-flags-key-challenges-salehuddin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/146554\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF satisfied with Bangladesh&#8217;s reform progress but flags key challenges: Salehuddin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                    UNB\n          <\/p>\n<p>\n      18 November, 2025, 02:20 pm    <\/p>\n<p>\n      Last modified: 18 November, 2025, 06:54 pm    <\/p>\n<p>\n      Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed. File Photo<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&gt; <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"adf-overlay ratio ratio__16x9 lazyload\" data-aspectratio=\"451\/254\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/salehuddin.jpg\" width=\"451\" height=\"254\" alt=\"Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed. File Photo\" title=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n          Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed. File Photo        <\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed today (18 November) said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed satisfaction with Bangladesh&#8217;s ongoing economic reforms, although reiterated concerns over several structural challenges that require closer attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&#8220;They said the situation is overall good, but they are monitoring the challenges. We are working under a plan, but they feel that taking some steps a little faster would bring better outcomes,&#8221; he told reporters after meetings of the Advisers Council Committee on Economic Affairs and the Committee on Government Purchase at the Secretariat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">He noted that the IMF is particularly concerned about the speed of policy implementation, especially surrounding interest rate adjustments.<\/p>\n<p>        <a style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #2b4949; border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc; font-size: 18px;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMIivlQsw2ZKrAw?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tbsnews.net\/sites\/all\/themes\/sloth\/images\/google_news.svg\" alt=\"The Business Standard Google News\" style=\"display: inline-block; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px; height: 30px;\"\/><br \/>\n            Keep updated, follow The Business Standard&#8217;s Google news channel<br \/>\n          <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&#8220;Increasing the policy rate by the central bank cannot be done suddenly. Everyone knows that. We have to ensure supply-side improvements at the same time,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Dr Salehuddin also mentioned that the IMF has raised issues related to the banking sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&#8220;They have taken five banks under observation, which they consider a major challenge,&#8221; he said, adding that the government needs to undertake tough reforms to strengthen financial governance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">On revenue administration, the adviser said the IMF is satisfied with the current progress of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) but expects reforms to continue steadily. &#8220;The process has become principled but manpower restructuring and capacity enhancement will take time,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">He added that while it may not be possible to achieve a complete turnaround within the current government&#8217;s tenure, substantial groundwork and structural preparations would be completed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&#8220;We may not reach the final conclusion, but the logical framework and preparatory work will be done,&#8221; he assured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Responding to a question on whether the IMF has set any new conditions, Dr Salehuddin said no fresh conditions were imposed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&#8220;This was more like a consultation. They expressed satisfaction with the measures we have taken so far. The economic situation is largely under control, and the remaining time will be used for consolidation,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">The $4.7 billion IMF loan programme, approved in January 2023, aims to support Bangladesh&#8217;s economic stability, strengthen fiscal reforms, and enhance resilience amid global economic pressures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Several tranches have already been disbursed, while further instalments remain tied to policy performance benchmarks and structural reforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">The IMF will delay disbursing the sixth tranche until the next national election and the newly elected government assumes office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">The interim government that assumed power on 8 August\u00a0 2024, three days after the Awami League regime was ousted amid a mass uprising, announced that the next general election would be held in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Finance ministry officials said that they are expecting the release of the sixth and seventh tranches in June 2026. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">On June 23, the IMF approved the release of the fourth and fifth tranches amounting to $1.3 billion, taking the overall amount of disbursement to $3.6 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">In June 2025, the IMF also increased the overall loan amount to $5.5 billion from $4.7 billion under the loan programme that began in 2023 under the AL regime in 2023 to meet the balance of payment shortage. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">The programme period has also been extended by six months to 27 January 2027, from July 2026, following requests from Dhaka.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">The interim government has already reduced the balance of payment pressure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Driven by higher remittance and export earnings, the country&#8217;s gross foreign exchange reserves increased to $32 billion on October 16, the highest in 31 months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">The latest IMF mission is also linked to the Article IV report, an annual consultation with its member countries on the overall economy, on Bangladesh.<br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNB 18 November, 2025, 02:20 pm Last modified: 18 November, 2025, 06:54 pm Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[83594,83598,28321,83596,76249,72,83592,113,83593,20471,83595,72414,61,2535,83597,60784,60,40023,40024,21154,83591],"class_list":["post-146554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-balance-of-payment","tag-bangladesh-economic-challenges","tag-bangladesh-economy","tag-bangladesh-interim-government","tag-banking-sector-reform","tag-business","tag-economic-reforms","tag-economy","tag-financial-governance","tag-financial-stability","tag-fiscal-reforms","tag-foreign-exchange-reserves","tag-ie","tag-imf","tag-imf-article-iv-consultation","tag-imf-loan-bangladesh","tag-ireland","tag-national-board-of-revenue","tag-nbr","tag-policy-rate","tag-salehuddin-ahmed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}