The International Monetary Fund has approved one-hundred-and-thirty-eight million dollars in emergency assistance to Bangladesh to help the country recover from this year's devastating floods.

The IMF said the flooding would cause an economic slow-down.

It praised Bangladesh's progress in stabilising and liberalising the economy, but said more needed to be done on banking and revenue collection.

Fifteen-hundred people were reported to have lost their lives and over two-million tonnes of rice were destroyed by the country's worst floods for ten years.