The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the installment of US$682 million in the second portion of the $4.7 billion loan package allocated for Bangladesh.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal late last night confirmed, saying the approval came at the multilateral lender’s board meeting.

Bangladesh applied to the IMF for a loan to keep mobilising the economy amid global economic headwind.

The country agreed to pursue reforms on certain issues under the loan programme.

Before and after receiving the first $476.2 million tranche in February, Bangladesh took several steps to reform the structure of its financial sector and its policies, including raising the price of power and gas and cutting subsidies at different sectors.

It has continued the reforms after the initial round of funds came in.

In October, Bangladesh reached a staff-level agreement with an IMF team coming to the country to review the use of funds released in the first stage of the loan agreement.

The decision paved the way of fund release in the second tranche of the loan agreement.

-BSS.