Muhith seeks support from WB, IMF

United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka

The finance minister. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, stressed the need for enhanced budget support from the World Bank and Balance of Payment support from the IMF.

This was stressed in his statement for the 2011 annual meetings of the World Bank group and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC on Friday, said a press release of Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC.

He said Bangladesh’s public investments and expenditures were carefully planned and designed for achieving core of development objectives such as brining women to the forefront of the development, creating jobs, maintaining price stability, generating power and energy, devising food and social security programme and combating climate change impacts.

He noted that all these efforts need to be supplemented through budget support under the Poverty Reduction Support Credit(PRSC)programme of the World Bank and balance of payment support under the Extended Credit Facility(ECF)of the IMF.

‘Such supports would be key in creating fiscal space and mitigating pressure on the already strained country’s balance of payment’, he added.

Highlighting achievements of Bangladesh in maintaining a stable macroeconomic situation in the face if global economic downturn, particularly in areas such as balance of payments, maintaining stable export growth, expansion of domestic demand, strong performance in rural and agricultural sectors meeting power crisis and sustaining an overall growth rate of over 6%, the Finance Minister said that Bangladesh rightfully deserved budget support from the World Bank for additional investment it had to make to achieve them.

Muhith, also the Governor of the World Bank and IMF for Bangladesh, said Bangladesh has placed poverty alleviation central to its development efforts and allocated up to 53.12 percent of the budget for poverty reducing expenditure.

Referring to the experiences of the global financial crisis, the Finance Minister urged upon the Governors for restructuring the global, financial, monetary and architecture.

He proposed that G20 or the Board of Governors should inscribe restructuring as an agenda item to initiate a meaningful restructuring of the global financial system.

He put forward concrete suggestions for considerations including giving G20 informal mechanism, some legal court, managing liquidity by the global public sector, enhanced monitoring and surveillance of the IMF.

He reiterated the need for enhanced focus by the World Bank on mediating surplus resources for investment in deficit countries, enhanced efforts to overcome poverty and hunger, devising a pragmatic trade financing system and managing volatility of commodity prices, particularly those of fooed grains and petroleum.

Muhith is leading a high level Bangladesh delegation to the 2011 annual meetings of the Board of Governors of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington DC.

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