The United Nations gave Bangladesh and Nepal three more years before they leave the Least Developed Nation category, allowing them to retain trade and financing benefits as both economies face pressures from global and domestic challenges.

Bangladesh’s gross domestic product expanded 4.60% in the April-June quarter, compared with the 2.05% pace a year earlier, according to provisional data released by the Bureau of Statistics Wednesday.

Bangladesh is preparing to raise between $500 million and $1 billion through its maiden foreign-currency sovereign bond sale within the next three months, a senior government official said.

Bangladesh has resumed wheat purchases from its western neighbor, after India’s plentiful supply encouraged it to lift an export ban at a time when Black Sea trade disruptions have sent global prices soaring.

Bangladesh was forced to pay the most for liquefied natural gas than it has in about four years, threatening to drive up energy costs as the government scrambles to contain rolling blackouts.

Bangladesh will consider joining the Mecca Pact, the mutual-defense agreement Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed earlier this month.

Bangladesh is advancing plans to purchase Chinese J-10CE fighter jets, with a government official pointing to the aircraft’s performance in the recent India-Pakistan conflict.

Bangladesh’s President Mohammed Shahabuddin, a long time ally of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned on health grounds, his spokesman said in a statement on Friday.

Bangladesh Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said the next deal with the International Monetary Fund must safeguard the country’s ordinary citizens and ensure economic security, distancing his government from the terms of an earlier agreement.

A new, $13 billion Russian-built plant could generate 15% of the country's electricity.

Bangladesh is studying a plan to issue its first-ever sovereign bond overseas, as the nation looks for ways to finance its record spending.

Bangladesh’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Tuesday, opting for caution amid lingering external risks.

The World Bank approved two loans totaling over $1 billion to help Bangladesh cope with volatility in the global fertilizer market and improve food security.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will travel to China next week to secure infrastructure financing and deepen trade ties during his first overseas tour since taking office in February.

Inside a new Bangladeshi glass factory with a production floor nearly twice the size of a soccer field, machinery sits wrapped in tarpaulins. At a neighboring steel mill, construction has slowed and production has yet to begin.

Bangladesh’s new government unveiled its first budget on Thursday, outlining record spending to be financed through higher tax revenue and foreign borrowing, as the South Asian nation seeks to revive growth after a period of political turmoil and economic disruption.

Bangladesh is pushing for a fresh lending arrangement with the International Monetary Fund to replace an existing $5.5 billion bailout program that the government says was “designed for a different economic reality.”

Bangladesh’s central bank unveiled a 600 billion-taka ($5 billion) package to boost economic growth, revive shuttered factories and support small businesses.

Bangladesh said it will continue negotiating with the International Monetary Fund on key reforms the IMF has set as conditions for the balance of a $5.5 billion loan, with Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury holding meetings in Washington with the global lender’s officials.

Bangladesh’s central bank sought to reassure investors that the nation’s foreign-exchange market remains stable and the taka faces no immediate risk of depreciation, even as the currency slid to a fresh low against the dollar.