Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh on Wednesday received US$141 million as the first installment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan under Extended Credit Facility (ECF), officials said.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve rose to $10.153 billion on the day after receiving the IMF’s fund from 10.004 billion of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
“We expect that the next installment of the IMF loan will be received on November 15 this year,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the rest of amount of IMF loan will be given in equal six installments in the next three years.
Earlier on April 11 last, the IMF approved $987 million in loan to Bangladesh under its ECF to help the country overcome its macroeconomic pressure.
The Bangladesh government had sought the credit to improve the country’s overall BoP situation which entered the negative territory in the fiscal year 2010-11 after a decade, due to widening trade gap, lower growth of remittances and deficit balance in the financial account.
The BoP has recorded a deficit of $516 million during the July-February period of the FY12 from of $222 million in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
BBN/SSR/AD-25Apr12-7:15 pm (BST)
