IMF Approves $732 Million to Help Bangladesh Address Effects of Coronavirus Measures on Economy

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a statement that it has approved a $732 million funding to help Bangladesh overcome the impact of the measures implemented to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic on the country's garment exports-oriented economy.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is severely impacting the Bangladeshi economy. Two major sources of external financing, namely exports of Ready-Made Garments (RMG) and remittance inflows, are projected to decline rapidly", the statement said on Friday.

The IMF explained that it had approved two separate disbursements of $244 million and $488 million to assist Bangladesh in the economic recovery.

The International Monetary Fund is working through requests for novel coronavirus pandemic relief from more than 100 nations and says it has up to $1 trillion available for this purpose.

Bangladesh, a country of 164 million people, has reported nearly 43,000 novel coronavirus cases and 582 deaths since February, the World Health Organization dashboard shows.