IMF support needed to sustain development: Finance Minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has called International Monetary Fund (IMF) and development partners to continue financial support to Bangladesh to maintain the country’s economic development trend.

He made this call during a meeting with visiting IMF Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Antoinette Monsio Sayeh at Pan Pacific Hotel Sonargaon in the capital on Sunday (January 15).

At this time, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, Finance Department Senior Secretary Fatima Yeasmin, Economic Relations Department Secretary Sharifa Khan, Financial Institutions Secretary Sheikh Mohammad Salim Ullah and Energy and Mineral Resources Department Secretary Dr Md Khairuzzaman Majumder and other senior officials were present.

The Finance Minister welcomed the Deputy Managing Director of IMF on behalf of Bangladesh. Referring to the continuous progress of Bangladesh, the minister said, after independence, our GDP was only 6.3 billion US dollars in 1972. It took us almost 38 years to cross the $100 billion milestone in 2009. Bangladesh is now the 35th largest economy in the world. Our GDP is now 465 billion dollars. Whereas last year we were the 41st largest economy with USD 396 billion. Our next goal is to become an upper-middle income country by 2031 and a smart developed country by 2041. We need to ensure adequate mobilization of domestic and foreign resources to achieve our development goals. In this regard, as always, we seek the cooperation of the development partners of Bangladesh.

In the meeting, the recent dynamics of the global economy and also the ongoing economic situation of Bangladesh were discussed in details. In view of global high inflation, rising interest rates, Russia-Ukraine war, etc., various issues of developing and emerging economies are discussed. The IMF DMD expressed satisfaction over the various initiatives taken by the government and the central bank to deal with the ongoing crisis. She emphasized on the continuation of the basic reform programmes announced by the government.

The Finance Minister expressed satisfaction that the IMF initially agreed to provide a loan of USD 4.5 billion as requested by the Government of Bangladesh. In particular, he thanked the IMF for supporting the reforms proposed by the government in this loan programme.