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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suggested that Bangladesh should boost public investment and ensure better governance in the development work to expand the country's economy, officials said on Monday.
It has also recommended reducing non-performing loans (NPLs), introducing a fully flexible foreign exchange rate and cutting subsidy in public spending, they said.
On Monday, the IMF mission held meetings with different government agencies, including the Planning Division, the Commerce Ministry, the Finance Division, Bangladesh Bank and National Board of Revenue (NBR).
They are currently in Dhaka to review the progress of Bangladesh's US$4.7 billion loan programme, focusing on reforms related to the fourth and fifth installments, particularly about net international reserves and tax revenue collection.
After the meeting with the IMF mission, Planning Division Secretary Iqbal Abdullah Harun told a group of journalists that the IMF asked about the status of the reforms in the public investment and development project-related issues.
"The IMF inquired about Bangladesh's relatively low public investment in the development projects. Lower investment will affect the economic growth," said a senior Planning Commission (PC) official, who attended the meeting.
A central bank official told the FE that the IMF team discussed the flexible exchange rate regime, updates on banking sector
reforms, the condition of struggling banks following recent cash support, and the status of non-performing loans (NPLs).
The Washington-based lender also asked about the current development under the "modernization of monetary policy framework", he said.
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