Saturday, April 20, 2024
Unrealised export proceeds currently stand at $1.4 billion, not $3 billion as reported by some media outlets, clarified Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque.
Speaking to reporters after a wrap-up meeting between the visiting IMF team and Bangladesh Bank governor, Mezbaul said, “There has been some misleading news circulating that Bangladesh’s unrealised export proceeds stood at $3 billion, but this is not the case.
“Of the $1.4 billion unrealised export proceeds, $255 million is from short shipment, $40 million bankruptcy of exporters, $20 million bankruptcy of importers and $250 million as mitigation process.”
Earlier in the day, the IMF team – led by its Mission Chief for Bangladesh Rahul Anand – met with the Bangladesh Bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder as part of a wrap-up meeting.
Mezbaul told reporters, “There is some misleading news going around that the unrealised export proceeds at $3 billion, but this is not central bank data. This gap may be due to differences in definition, and the IMF team has no observation regarding this data.
“The IMF team is satisfied with our policy programmes but there are still some challenges. We have time to meet those challenges. The downward trend of forex reserves is a key challenge, but I hope our financials will be stronger when some foreign loans are added to our account.”
He added that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is now visiting different countries and signing loan agreements, which will reflect positively on Bangladesh's financial account.
Mentioning that the central bank shared its plan with the IMF team in the meeting, Mezbaul said, “Another mission will visit Bangladesh in October for final assessment.
“We have many programmes that have to be implemented in phases, including interest corridor and uniform exchange rate. We are going to introduce these two programmes from the next monetary policy, and the IMF has been informed in this regard.”
He then said, “The single digit exchange rate will be a 2 per cent buffer in all exchange rates, including buying and selling prices. The Bangladesh Bank will calculate the reserves using both the gross and net as per the IMF formula in the upcoming Monetary Policy.
“The country’s economy is facing three key challenges – the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, and global inflation.”
The IMF team conducted a staff visit to Dhaka from April 25 to assess in the first review of the $4.7 billion loans it approved in January this year for Bangladesh.
This team met with top officials of the finance ministry, Bangladesh Bank and energy ministry to discuss recent macroeconomic developments and implementation of the IMF-supported programmes.
