The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to loan $4.5 billion to Bangladesh in seven instalments extending to December 2026, announced Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

The IMF will release the first instalment of 352.35 million SDR (Special Drawing Rights) in February next year, the minister said at a media briefing after a meeting with the global lender on Wednesday.
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Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder and Finance Division Senior Secretary Fatima Yasmin were also present at the briefing.

The rest of the loan will be disbursed in six equal instalments of 519 million SDR every six months until December 2026, the finance minister said.

The total loan amount is 3.468 billion SDR, which is about $4.5 billion US dollars according to the current exchange rate.

SDRs are units of account for the IMF, representing a claim to currency held by IMF member countries for which they may exchange.

According to the current SDR interest rate, the average interest rate of the loan is 2.20 percent. One-fourth of the loan will be interest-free while the rest of the loan will be charged with an interest rate of said amount.

Mustafa Kamal said that there are three parts to the loan. Of this, the first tranche of SDR 822.82 million will not be subject to interest. Interest on the balance of the loan amounting to SDR 1,645.64 will be determined by adding one percent to the SDR floating rate. And the interest rate of the remaining 1 billion SDR will be 75 percent with the SDR floating rate.