BM Desk : The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission has arrived in Dhaka to evaluate the nation’s general economic status and to check the status of criteria related to the release of the sixth tranche of the IMF loan.

The delegation, led by Chris Papageorgiou, Head of the Development Macroeconomics Division of the IMF’s Research Department, began meetings on Wednesday (October 29) with various government ministries, departments, and agencies.

On the first day, the mission held an opening meeting with the Finance Secretary, outlining the mission’s goals and objectives. Later, the team held meetings with the Macroeconomics and Budget Wings of the Finance Division, as well as several departments of the Bangladesh Bank.

According to sources, the discussion with the Macroeconomics Wing focused on key economic indicators and the structural reforms the government plans to implement by December to meet commitments made to the IMF.

In the meeting with the Budget Wing, the mission was briefed on overall budget implementation, the status of pending subsidies, and plans to reduce subsidies and scale back remittance incentives. The IMF mission is scheduled to continue meetings with various government agencies until November 13.

Under the loan agreement signed between Bangladesh and the IMF, the fifth tranche of the loan is due to be released in December. In June, the IMF provided the government with a list of conditions that must be met to qualify for the disbursement.

Bangladesh has reportedly met all IMF conditions except for revenue collection targets. The current mission aims to verify the extent of compliance with these conditions.

During the recent IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, IMF officials informed Bangladesh that the fifth tranche would not be released in December. Instead, the disbursement will be considered after the upcoming national elections, following discussions with the newly formed government, likely around March–April.

In response to the IMF’s decision to delay the loan installment, Bangladesh had proposed postponing the review mission until after the elections. However, the IMF declined, leading Dhaka to eventually agree to proceed with the current review mission.