IMF recommends that Bangladesh raise fuel prices

DHAKA – The International Monetary Fund has asked aid-dependent Bangladesh to raise state-regulated fuel prices to ease pressures on the economy, although suggestions of such a move have recently sparked protests.

Both the IMF and the World Bank have been pressing impoverished Bangladesh to cut fuel subsidies — meaning a rise in retail prices — to free up funds to pursue development objectives and help the poor.

But even a slight hint of such a rise in prices from Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman last month set off widespread protests by farmers and opposition parties, which forced him to backtrack.

The issue was raised in a written statement, seen by Reuters on Thursday, from Thomas Rumbaugh of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, who led an IMF mission to Dhaka on March 1-8.

Reuters