IMF loan conditions: Govt seeks lower reserve target

Bangladesh has requested the visiting International Monetary Fund staff mission to revise down some of the targets as the existing numbers are not achievable in the present context.At the end of December, Bangladesh must maintain at least $26.81 billion in net foreign currency reserves.For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.

The government has now requested the IMF to bring down the ceiling to less than $20 billion, The Daily Star has learnt from Bangladesh Bank officials informed with the proceedings.Net foreign reserves are less than $18 billion, according to the calculations of Zahid Hussain, a former lead economist of the World Bank's Dhaka office.

Bangladesh has taken several steps since last year to increase its strained dollar stockpile but none have worked so far.For instance, on July 13, the central bank began publishing gross foreign reserves as per the IMF's calculation. It stood at $23.65 billion.

As of October 11, Bangladesh's gross reserves stand at $21.1 billion, according to the central bank's latest published statistics.This means, that in the three months, gross reserves declined by $2.58 billion despite the best efforts by the government to conserve the dollar stockpile.