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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cautiously hailed Bangladesh's recent foreign-exchange -reserves buildup, pending a spot-check as to whether the modalities of market operations are consistent with the Fund-prescribed exchange regime.
An IMF mission is scheduled to visit Dhaka this week for the fifth review of progress on the conditions binding its US$5.50 -billion lending package meant to stabilise the country's macroeconomic situation, according to IMF's deputy director for Asia and Pacific Department Thomas Helbling.
"They will conduct the discussions with the authorities, and remains to be seen what the outcome is. Mission will be in the field," he said in response to a question at a press briefing in Hong Kong on Friday on the Regional Economic Outlook for the Asia -Pacific region.
He said they are having discussions to conduct the review, fifth review of the programme, also on Bangladesh reserves.
Strengthening and increasing reserves to reduce balance-of -payments vulnerabilities is a key goal of the programme.
"So the success of the central bank in accumulating reserves is welcome, and the review mission will then assess whether the modalities were consistent with the exchange -rate regime," he said.
Under the IMF-prescribed free-floating exchange rate, the banking regulator has purchased $2.12 billion from the commercial banks since July 13 last pursuant to its market -intervention strategy to stabilise the forex reserves.
As a matter of fact, the country's forex reserves in accordance with IMF's BPM6 calculation rose to $27.35 billion as on October 21, 2025 from September count of $26.60 billion, according to BB data.
But such growing forex purchase by the central bank from the market puts NOP (net open position) of many banks in short positioning, which is blamed for a sudden upswing in the taka-dollar exchange rate.
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