Bangladesh is likely to start negotiations with International Monetary Fund in October for a fresh $1bn loan under Extended Credit Facility, said official sources.
Economic Relations Division sent a letter to Finance Division last week requesting to prepare a proposal for the interest-free credit.
The negations are likely to be held at the next World Bank-IMF yearly board meeting on October 9-11 in Peruvian capital Lima.
A copy of the letter has also been dispatched to Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman.
Finance division sources said the government wants to get continued support from the donors and lenders in the current “cloudy political situation” of the country.
However, the government still fails to fulfill two major conditions under the existing ECF programme.
Officials said the lender could ask the government to implement the national budget announcements as conditions to get the new ECF fund.
They believe that if the IMF comes up with another ECF loan, other donors will feel encouraged to give loans to Bangladesh, which will help the Awami League government to show that it has international supports.
Early this month, the IMF extended the tenure of the ECF programme by three months to give the government sufficient time to meet the unrealised conditions for release of the last two instalments of the $1bn-loan.
The government will have to fulfill the conditions by October 31 for release of the remaining two instalments, amounting to $280m.
The multilateral lender deferred the sixth tranche of the seven-part instalments for the $1bn loan in November last year after the government failed to meet two pertinent conditions.
