Global lender IMF will release the fifth tranche of the Extended Credit Facility in the first week of June with an aim to maintain local exchange rate stability, State Minister for Finance MA Mannan has said.
The International Monetary Fund was also keen on knowing whether the big development projects such as the Padma bridge were viable for the country, the minister told the Dhaka Tribune at his secretariat office yesterday after a meeting with the ECF review mission.
The proposed Padma bridge, the elevated expressway and the metro rail were part of the government’s six fast-track priority development projects estimated to cost $15.5bn.
After the World Bank and some other major lenders pulled out in April 2012 bringing corruption conspiracy charges, the government decided to implement the bridge project with local funds.
“I told them [the IMF mission] that these major projects are our people’s dream, but are not economically feasible for the country right now,” the junior minister said.
According to Mannan, the IMF mission was “astonished” to see Bangladesh’s economic resilience despite the political unrest that took place from October to January.
He also said the IMF had been contemplating about introducing fresh debt limits for the low-income countries under the Debt Limits Fund Programme.
The IMF mission came to Dhaka on March 19 on an eight-day visit to examine the release of the fifth tranche of the credit facility.
The IMF Executive Board disbursed the fourth ECF tranche of $140.4m to Bangladesh last December. That brought the total disbursement under the arrangement to about $561.4m.