The country鈥檚 current $5.5 billion loan programme with the International Monetary Fund is likely to increase by $2 billion.
Finance ministry officials said that the interim government was negotiating with IMF officials for more funds to be utilised for addressing LDC graduation challenges.
They said that chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus would hold a teleconference meeting with IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva at 7:00pm today.
The overall progress on the current loan programme along with further cooperation regarding more funds would be discussed at the virtual meeting, they said.
They said that finance secretary Khairuzzaman Chowdhury would also join the virtual meeting.
Bangladesh, scheduled to graduate from the least developed county to a developing one in November 2026, will face challenges like the elimination of quota- and duty-free facilities of its exports to the developed countries.
Besides, it will have to suspend offering direct cash subsidy to its exporters.
Demands have been raised by the country鈥檚 business leaders to defer the graduation by at least three years.
Bangladesh will require extra funds to safeguard the local industries, said the finance ministry officials.
Bangladesh has been in an advantaged position in negotiations with the IMF after the government introduced market-based exchange rate and spit the National Board of Revenue to separate its policy wing from the execution wing.
All these are linked to the current IMF loan programme initiated by the previous government in January 2023 to overcome a serious shortage of foreign currency.
A smooth transition from the LDC bloc is also connected with the programme under which Bangladesh is supposed to receive $4.6 billion by July 2026.
Until June 2025, the IMF approved release of about $3.6 billion.
While releasing the fourth and fifth trances in the past June, the multilateral lender said that the overall loan amount had been raised to $5.5 billion from $4.7 billion following requests from Dhaka.
The programme period has also been extended by six months to January 2027 from July 2026, it added.
