Staff Correspondent

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Tuesday said that achieving the forex reserve target set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is impossible for Bangladesh.

“Bangladesh's economy, both in net and gross, is in a good condition. But, fulfilling the target of forex reserve set by the IMF is not possible,” Kamal said while talking to reporters at his office in the Secretariat on Tuesday.

He said Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves remain in a stronger position amid the volatile situation prevailing across the world.

“The government tries to keep up the forex reserves over $30 billion by this year, which was around $26 billion in the last year,” he said.

UNB adds: He also said the inward flow of remittances could double from the existing volume if the illegal hundi could be stopped.

Kamal said that fulfilling the IMF’s conditions of the foreign reserves target for Bangladesh could not be met considering the realistic situation of the economy.

Regarding the rate of higher inflation, he said that inflation is important for the economy, and those who do not care about the economy may not want inflation.

In response to the question of what could be the main challenge for the new government, the finance minister said, "The new government knows that."

However, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the government's challenge will be the economy. So, the economy will be given importance, he pointed out.

Kamal said that the decision to fix the interest rate of the bank was correct.

He said, "If the interest rate had been kept at the previous level, it would have gone up to 22-24 percent now."

About the interest rate increase again, the finance minister said, "The interest rate is increasing, that's right." If the market can take it, why not increase it?

However, the interest rates were fixed at single digits because it was not possible to pay for small, medium, and even large industries considering the situation of then.

After that when defaulted loans increased, “We did not allow them to increase by extending the repayment period.”

Regarding unusual transactions in the banking sector in his tenure Kamal said, “I have learned from the newspapers that there have been unusual transactions in some cases, it will not be longer.”