<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">Bangladesh has strongly denied that it has sought a 'bailout' loan from the IMF as reported in Bangladeshi media that it has sought a loan of USD 4.5 billion from the IMF in view of its dwindling foreign currency reserves. <br />''<br />''Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr. Ahmad Kaikus told the media on Wednesday that Bangladesh has enough currency reserves to meet the import bill for over 5 months. He said Bangladesh has sought a soft-term loan from the IMF for balance of payment and budget support in view of the volatile world situation. Dr. Kaikus said that such a loan has been taken by Bangladesh earlier also from the IMF on a couple of other occasions.<br />''<br />''Giving example of earlier loans for budget support from multilateral agencies like World Bank, JICA, ADB and IMF, Principal Secretary Dr. Kaikus said that the government had received USD 732 million from the IMF as support for balance of payment during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said this time Bangladesh has sought support from the IMF for balance of payment, budget support as well as for mitigating climate change related expenses. <br />''<br />''Meanwhile, the IMF has said that it would discuss with Bangladesh its loan request after it became the third country in South Asia to seek such support after Pakistan and Sri Lanka, reports Reuters. The IMF said Bangladesh was interested in its new Resilience and Sustainability Facility aimed at helping countries face climate-change challenges and had also requested negotiations for an 'accompanying IMF programme'.</span>