Bangladesh Bank is holding talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for getting the third tranche of $1.15 billion from its loan package as Bangladesh appears to be falling behind in meeting conditions to keep steady forex reserves.
A prime condition binding the borrowed fund release is maintaining net international reserves (NIR) at minimum $14.77 billion by this June.
As a result of the shortfall, sources say that the multilateral lending agency keeps meeting virtually regularly with the Bangladeshi officials concerned and pressuring them to meet the target within the timeline as the Bretton Woods Institution is set to hold board meeting on June 24 where the third installment of the $4.70 billion loan will be placed for approval.
Ministry of Finance sources claim that Bangladesh has met all of the IMF-set conditions, except for two -- NIR and boosting revenue targets.
The sources also said that the NIR now stood below $13 billion but the country needed to take it to $14.77 billion this June.
It means arranging around $2 billion in less than three weeks which will be a challenging task for the country in this crunch time.
As part of the lending package for stabilizing the country's macroeconomic condition, the Washington-based multilateral lender had given the country a target to maintain $20.11 billion of NIR at the end of June this year.
But, after the latest review mission in Dhaka, the IMF lowered the NIR threshold for the central bank to $14.76 billion, according to a document of the IMF.
This is yet another relaxation on the NIR since the lender approved the loan for Bangladesh in January 2023 to tackle its economic challenges stemming from the global economic crisis and other factors.
Bangladesh Bank could not get to the NIR goal, until June 2023, set by the IMF after its first review.
It also failed to hit the mark set for until December 2023.
In January last year, Bangladesh signed the $4.7-billion loan agreement with the IMF due to dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
The loan is being distributed in seven installments by 2026.
The lender cleared $447.8 million worth of the first installment in February last year, and $681 million of the second installment in December.
Despite lowering the target of net reserves in the new staff-level agreement, the lender has not reduced the revenue-collection goal.