However, the organization also pointed to some challenges. These are: persistent inflationary pressures, increased volatility of global financial conditions, and aggravation of recession in major trading partners.
The visit of the IMF team, led by Rahul Anand, the head of the organisation’s Asia and Pacific region, began on 26 April. Over 12 days, the team held meetings with all departments of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Commerce, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and various departments of Bangladesh Bank (BB). The IMF team also held meetings with representatives of the private sector, bilateral donors and development partners of Bangladesh. On the last day of their visit, the team held meetings with Central Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukdar and Finance Secretary Fathima Yasmin.
Sources in the meeting said the IMF team asked for a strategy to reduce subsidies as a condition for availing loans. He asked why the government is considering increasing the subsidy in the upcoming budget for the financial year 2023-24. What is the strategy adopted by the government to increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 0.5 percent? Is buying an Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) sufficient to generate revenue? How to increase real forex reserves to $24.46 billion by June?
As the IMF issued a media release, the World Bank also held a press conference after the meeting. However, none of the media releases or press conferences talked about subsidies and the tax-GDP ratio. The Finance Department also has something to say in this matter.