The Bangladesh government is anticipating a significant boost to its budgetary support, with expectations set on receiving $500 million from the World Bank (WB) within the fiscal year of FY 2023-24.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance have revealed that discussions with the Washington-based multilateral lender are progressing.
Allocations of $250 million each are expected from two distinct facilities: one from the climate change fund and another from the regular International Development Association (IDA) fund.
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali led a delegation to Washington D.C. during the IMF-WB Spring Meetings to engage with the World Bank’s South Asia Region Director, reinforcing Bangladesh’s request for expedited confirmation of the funds.
Encouragingly, the WB has signaled approval to provide $250 million in budget support from its climate change fund and an additional $250 million under the Second Recovery and Resilience Development Policy.
Various factors have challenged Bangladesh’s economic landscape, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East crisis, fluctuating fuel prices, and foreign exchange reserve shortfalls.
Consequently, seeking budget assistance from global lenders has become imperative for the government.
Apart from the WB, Bangladesh has approached other development partners such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Japan, and the French Development Agency (AFD) for budgetary assistance in FY24.
Since July 2023, the government has received $400 million from the ADB and $90 million from South Korea.
This additional support supplements the $11.09 billion received in budgetary support by the end of the last fiscal year, which has been instrumental in addressing challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and supporting economic recovery efforts.
