Bangladesh has received much-awaited $476.17 million as the first installment, out of the $4.7 billion loan package, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said the Bangladesh Bank.

"Bangladesh Bank has received IMF's first installment on Thursday," Md Mezbaul Huque, executive director and spokesman of the Bangladesh Bank, said on Thursday night.

The central bank official said the first installment of IMF loan package was deposited to the Bangladesh Bank account with US Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday. The second installment and the rest of the amount will be deposited according to the schedule.

As a result, the country's foreign exchange reserves increased to $32.69 billion on Thursday, owing to the IMF loan installment, he also said.

The IMF loan package, taken on 2.2 per cent rate of interest, will come in seven separate installments. The last installment will come in 2026.

Earlier, Washington-based IMF's executive committee approved $4.7 billion loan package for Bangladesh on January 31 last.

Bangladesh will get about $3.3 billion under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and about $1.4 billion under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), according to an IMF press release issued on January 31.

With the approval of a $1.4 billion loan under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), Bangladesh became the first country in Asia to receive a loan from the fund created for low and middle-income countries that are at risk due to climate change.

For creditors, an IMF loan would be a sign of a country's credit worthiness. In a period of collapsing economies, this could be the difference between bankruptcy and survival.

The IMF's green light can help Bangladesh secure more than $1 billion in loans from other development partners as well.