Bangladesh economy under pressure, growth may be 3.8 percent

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that Bangladesh’s economy is under pressure. The company says that the growth may be 3.8 percent by the end of the current financial year. The IMF cited popular uprisings, floods, and contractionary policies as reasons for the slowdown in growth.

The organization informed this information in a circular on Wednesday (October 18).

A 10-member IMF team visited Dhaka on December 3–18 to review the fourth tranche of the agency’s $4.7 billion loan program with the government of Bangladesh before disbursement. A statement was given at the end of the visit.

IMF officials have agreed to release the fourth tranche, the statement said. The matter will come up to their executive board in the next few weeks. Bangladesh is getting 64 million to 50 million dollars in this phase.

IMF says that the economy of Bangladesh will improve in the next financial year 2025-26. Economic growth will rise to 6.7 percent. Inflation will stand at 5 percent at the end of the same financial year.

In the World Economic Outlook released last October, the IMF estimated that Bangladesh’s total GDP growth in the current fiscal year 2024-25 will be 4.5 percent. Earlier, the IMF’s growth forecast for the current fiscal year was 6.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has sought another $750 million loan from the IMF to deal with economic risks and overcome the foreign exchange crisis. If this loan is approved, the total loan amount of Bangladesh from the IMF will be 5.3 billion dollars.

According to the IMF statement, the outflow of money from Bangladesh, especially from the banking sector, has put pressure on foreign exchange reserves. Besides revenue collection has decreased, cost pressure has increased.