As much as $670 million (around Tk 8,200 crore) from slow-moving World Bank-funded projects will be repurposed, with most of the funds going towards budget support as the government looks to navigate the narrow fiscal space amid a slowing economy.

Bangladesh to utilise the fund to speed up reforms, stabilise reserves

The government is expecting at least $5.65 billion in budget support this fiscal year from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to expedite reforms.

The government has identified a dozen slow-paced projects funded by the World Bank, from which up to $1.5 billion will be repurposed and utilised as budget support or in other policy-based reform programmes.

The World Bank (WB) is considering a $2 billion budget support for Bangladesh during the current fiscal year, according to the multilateral lender’s South Asia Region Vice President Martin Raiser

Bangladesh is expecting another $250 million in budget support from the World Bank after the government fulfilled the conditions laid out for the funding.

About $1 billion in budget support is set to arrive in the next few days from three development partners to help the government meet its deficit financing for this fiscal year.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has become the first multilateral lender to respond to Bangladesh’s call for budget support this fiscal year to weather the impacts of the Ukraine war after its board approved $250 million last week.

Bangladesh can expect budget support of $600-700 million from Japan as the development partner has responded positively to the country’s request for financial assistance to help the economy weather the storm caused by the Ukraine war.