Desk Report:
Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said that no problem anywhere occurred due to the government taking right decision at right time in economic management. Ramadan started after the current government came to power and war started. There was a fuel oil crisis due to the war. But despite the fuel crisis, there was no transportation crisis during Eid this time, transport fares did not increase. People were able to go home and return without any problems. This time, commodity prices were also stable during Ramadan. This time, there was no unrest over the salaries of garment workers. The workers were paid on time by the garment factory, so no problem arose.
The Finance Minister told reporters after a meeting with Krishna Srinivasan, Director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, who is visiting the Secretariat on Tuesday (March 24, 2026).
He said that a loan program is underway with the International Monetary Fund and discussions are underway to advance the program. The conditions against the program will be implemented gradually in the context of Bangladesh’s economy. He said, “We cannot do everything at once, we will do it our way.” All issues will be discussed at the IMF spring meeting in Washington in April.
The Finance Minister said, after taking office, we have found the previous economy in a bad condition. The banking sector, the stock market are in a bad condition and the tax-GDP ratio is also very low. These crises can be overcome through economic reforms and the implementation of the BNP’s election manifesto.
He also said, we are implementing social security programs—such as family cards, distribution of farmer cards, agricultural loan waivers, etc.—one after another. Steps are being taken one after another to implement them. Since the time of the interim government, many development projects have been stalled due to economic reasons. We have discussed these.
The economy must be taken to a stable place through reforms. Several steps have been taken for this. The Finance Minister said that importance is being given to deregulation reforms, ease of doing business, reducing business costs, etc. to strengthen the economy. He said that all these will be reflected in the next budget.
