Bangladesh

No amount/estimate: (i) The repo rate has been lowered from 6 percent to 5.75% (effective 24 March 2020) and will be further reduced to 5.25% effective 12 April 2020. (vii) No amount/estimate: 29 July 2020, Bangladesh Bank in its monetary policy statement announced: (a) Overnight repo rate from 5.25% to 4.75%, (b) reverse repo rate from 4.75% to 4.00%, (c) Bank Rate which remained unchanged for the last 17 years (since 2003) to be reduced from 5.00% to 4.00%; (ix) September 24, Bangladesh bank fixed the highest interest rate on credit card loans to 20%.

(i) The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has also raised the advance-deposit ratio (ADR) and investment-deposit ratio (IDR) by 2% to facilitate credit to the private sector and improve liquidity in the banking system; (iii) BB took measures to delay non-performing loan classification; (iv) Banks with capital adequacy ratio (CAR) (in relation to their risk-weighted assets (RWA)) of 12.50% or above will be permitted to declare up to 30% dividend (of which cash dividend may be up to 15%); banks with CAR between 11.25% and 12.50% may declare dividend up to 15% (of which maximum cash dividend may be 7.5%); banks with CAR below 11.25% may declare dividend up to 10% (of which maximum cash dividend may be 5%). Cash dividend can be distributed before 30 September 2020 in favor of individual (local and foreign) investors; (v) 15 June 2020, loan defaulters given until September to repay loans before they are considered default; (vi) Banks may, without repayment guarantee, advance credit up to USD 500k for import of coronavirus related life-saving drugs, medical kits/equipment and other essential medical items; (vii) May 2021, BB imposed an additional 1.0 percent general provision against loans that have enjoyed deferral/time extension facilities.

The National Board of Revenue has suspended duties and taxes on imports of medical supplies, including protective equipment and test kits.

(i) BDT12.58 billion Cash Transfer to targeted poor people; (ii)BDT8.15 billion expansion of cash allowance programs; (iii) BDT25.03 billion free food distribution; (iv) BDT2.51 billion OMS of rice at 10 taka/kg; (v) BDT21.3 billion construction of home for homeless people; (vii) BDT8.6 billion additional procurement of paddy/rice (2.0 lac ton); (vi) No amount/estimate: Expatriate Bangladeshis can get 2% incentives without showing any paper on remittance upto $5,000 (earlier $1,500) and for more than $5,000. (vii) No amount/estimate: First week of May, assistance of Tk 2,500 to each of 3.6 million households who became jobless due to the restrictions on movement in the ongoing lockdown.

(i) BTD20 billion, the Ministry of Finance will subsidize interest payments as mentioned in Measure 2 on working capital loans by scheduled banks to businesses; (ii) BDT2.0 billion Support for farm mechanization; (iii) BDT20 billion employment creation through four State owned entities; (iv) Export Development Fund has been increased by USD1.5 billion; (v) BDT20 billion subsidy for commercial bank's suspended interest of April-May, 2020;

(vi) BDT95 billion subsidy for agriculture.

(i) 31 March 2020, USD1.33 million under the Skills for Employment Investment Program (Tranche 1); (ii) 30 April 2020, USD100 million under the COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance Project; (iii) April-December 2020, USD305.14 million as a guarantee under the Trade Finance Program (Additional Financing) with USD331.31 million co-financing; (iv) April-Decemeber 2020, USD348.45 million as a loan under Trade Finance Program (Additional Financing) with USD34.47 million co-financing; (v) USD3 million under the TA 9950-REG: Regional Support to Address the Outbreak of COVID-19 and Potential Outbreaks of Other Communicable Diseases; (vi) 7 April 2020, USD0.2 million as a technical assistance under the Regional Project Development Support for the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Operational Plan, 2016–2025; (vii) 7 May 2020, USD1 million as technical assistance under COVID-19 under Active Response and Expenditure Support Program; (viii) 7 May 2020, USD500 million as COVID-19 pandemic response option (CPRO); (vii) 20 May 2020, USD0.16 million technical assistance under Support to address Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Strengthen Health Systems Preparedness for Communicable Diseases in South Asia.; (viii) 30 June 2020, USD0.10 million techinal assistance under Quality Jobs and the Future of Work; (ix) 15 July 2020, USD10 million, Emergency Working Capital Support to Dairy Value Chain Project; (x) 24 July 2020, USD0.21 million technical assistance under Due Diligence and Capacity Development of Trade Finance Program Banks (Subproject 3); (xi) 5 August 2020, USD3 million COVID-19 Emergency Response; (xii) 10 October 2020, USD0.26 million technical assistance under Capacity Development for the Supply Chain Finance (Phase 2) (Subproject 3); (xiii) 4 November 2020, USD135.61 million for Khulna Sewerage System Development Project; (xiv) 5 November 2020, USD0.09 million technical assistance under "Creating Investable CIties in Post-COVID-19 Asia-Pacific"; (xv) 7 December 2020, USD50 million Microenterprise Development Project (Additional Financing); (xvi) 10 Decemer 2020, USD0.05 million technical assistance under Microenterprise Development Project; (xvii) 10 December 2020, USD1.0 million technical assistance under "Supporting COVID-19 Reponse Emergency Assistance Project. (xviii) 17 December 2020, USD0.40 million technical assistance under "Support to address Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Strengthen Health Systems Preparedness for Communicable Diseases in South Asia". (xix) 6 May 2021, USD1.5 million supplementary for "Support to address Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Strengthen Health Systems Preparedness for Communicable Diseases in South Asia". (xx) 22 June 2021, ADB approves USD940 milliion loan package for COVID-19 vaccines.; (xxi) 24 September 2021, USD650 million under "Sustainable Economic Recovery Program (Subprogram 1)". ; (xxii) 22 September 2021, USD0.06 million technical assistance under "Fostering Regional Cooperation and Integration throughKnowledge and Capacity Building of Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program Banks".

(i) 3 April 2020, The World Bank approved a fast-track USD100 million financing to help Bangladesh prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen its national systems for public health emergencies. The project is financed from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, through the World Bank Group’s COVID-19 Fast Track Facility. The credit has a 30-year maturity, including a five-year grace period. (ii) May 2020, more than USD25.7 million assistance from USAID includes USD10 million for health and IDA humanitarian assistance to help with case-management, surveillance activities, infection prevention and control, risk communication, and water, sanitation, and hygiene programs, and more than USD15.3 million in MRA humanitarian support for vulnerable people during the pandemic, including refugees and host communities; (iii) 18 May 2020, USD250 million co-financing from AIIB for ADB's COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program; (iv) 29 May 2020, USD732 million approved by IMF Executive Board under the Rapid Credit Facility, USD244 milion, and Rapid Financing Instrument, USD488 million; (v) 19 June 2020, USD1.05 billion provided by WB to create quality jobs and respond to covid-19 pandemic; (vi) USD500 million provided by WB to help improve road and digital connectivity and logistics in Western Region; (vii) 28 August 2020, AIIB approved USD100 million to Bangladesh for COVID-19 Response; (viii) No amount/estimate: 27 October 2020, Australia announced its COVID-19 development response plan for Bangladesh for 2020- 2021 which focuses on health security, stability, and economic recovery. (ix) 29 October 2020, South Korea to provide USD50 million soft loan to support the country’s efforts for fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic; (x) 11 November 2020, EUR93 million EU programme to mitigate the drastic economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees in the textile sector, an important industry in the country; (xi) 10 December 2020, EUR113 million COVID-19 aid for Bangladeshi garment workers; (xii) 28 January 2021, USD300 million COVID-19 Emergency and Crisis Response Facility from AIIB to reduce liquidity constraints brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic to SMEs and cottage industries. (xiii) 6 February 2021, USD40 million from the World Bank ato help Bangladesh increase the coverage of electronic government procurement (e-GP) with new features to respond to the COVID 19 challenges; (xiv) 17 March 2021, USD200 million from World Bank to provide support and services to the low-income urban youths impacted by the pandemic.; (xv) 18 March 2021, USD500 million World Bank Financing for COVID-19 Vaccination for 54 million people; (xvi) 26 March 2021, USD250 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA) to create and protect jobs ; (xvii) 28 March 2021, received 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from India. (xviii) 20 May 2021, USD600 million from World Bank to increase the employability and livelihood opportunities of more than 1.75 million poor and vulnerable people. (xix) 9 June 2021, USAID donated 1,200 pulse oximeters and personal protective equipment to protect healthcare and other frontline workers. (xx) 11 June 2021, Government of Sweden committed an additional grant of SEK6 million to support UNFPA's COVID-19 response in Bangladesh; (xxi) 27 June 2021, USD300 million financing agreement with World Bank to help about 750,000 poor and extreme poor rural people across 20 districts come out of poverty and build resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic and any future shocks. (xxii) 19 October 2021, USD25 million, United States has declared an additional suppor in urgent Covid-19 assistance to help Bangladesh in the national vaccination campaign as well as to improve the quality of patient care. ; (xxiii) 21 October 2021, Bangladesh gets another 5.5 mln doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China.