Dhaka: The World Bank has said it stands ready to support Bangladesh in addressing the growing Rohingya crisis if the government seeks assistance from it to this end.

"We're monitoring the situation very closely with UN agencies and other development partners. The World Bank stands ready, I want to repeat, the World Bank stands ready to support the government of Bangladesh in addressing the growing refugee (Rohingya) crisis if the government seeks World Bank assistance," said World Bank Country Director in Bangladesh Qimiao Fan on Wednesday.

He came up with the Washington-based lending agency's stance on the Rohingya issue replying to a question during the release of the Bangladesh Development Update at its office. World Bank's Lead Economist at its Dhaka Office Dr Zahid Hussain made the keynote presentation on the occasion.

Qimiao Fan said an official request will have to come through the official channel which is Economic Relations Division (ERD) under the Finance Ministry.

Apart from increased spending on the budget for a short term, he said, there may be quite significant pressure on the service delivery in the hosting communities in terms of access to health, water, education and sanitation due to the Rohingya crisis.

"I think it's difficult at this stage to tell exactly what would be the impact on the economy...the situation is evolving and evolving rapidly. It's clear in addition to the immediate humanitarian assistance, the government will need to address some long-term support that will be needed to help the refugees and also the hosting communities from the impact," the WB country director added.

He said obviously the World Bank is very concerned about the plight of Rohingya people who were forced to leave their own country because of conflict and violence.

Qimiao Fan said there is a new window called IDA 18 which is a World Bank's refugee sub-window for the next three years and fund from that window is obviously intended to help the countries to deal with the refugee crisis and also helping the hosting communities to relieve some pressures coming from that crisis.

He said the total allocation against IDA 18 for the next three years is $2 billion for all countries under the refugee window. "Allocation from the sub-window to any single country is maximum $400 million for the next three years and to get access to that fund, a country needs some requirements to fulfill."

Out of the major requirements, the World Bank Country Director said, the hosting country needs to host at least 25,000 refugees. "Bangladesh qualifies for that as there're a lot more refugees now in the country."

Besides, the country needs to have a framework to deal with the refugees. "I think Bangladesh has some policy framework in place to deal with the refugees," he said.

Qimiao Fan, however, said the exact amount will depend on the needs and the country's capacity to absorb in the short term.

He said from the refugee sub-window, there is a need to have some allocation from the country's core IDA as one-sixth of the amount will come from the core IDA while five-sixth from the refugee window. Of that five-sixth portion, normally half of that amount will come in grants and the other half in credits, which is similar to all countries' IDA allocations.

The World Bank Country Director said if any country chooses that support entirely focusing on helping refugees, then on a case-by-case basis, there may be cent percent grant to deal with the refugees.

Replying to a query, Lead Country Economist Dr Zahid Hussain said the Rohingya influx will definitely bring an unexpected pressure on the economy, saying, "With such influx of Rohingyas (near five lakh), there won't be a small-scale pressure, but we're yet to make any estimate regarding the impact of this on the economy."

He also said dealing with the Rohingya crisis will put pressure on the government expenditure, create possibility of increasing inflation at the local level, but there is not so much possibility of raising inflation at the national level.

Meanwhile, the UN on Tuesday drastically increased the estimated number of Rohingyas who have fled violence in Myanmar to 4.80 lakh since August 25.

With the new arrivals and some three lakh Rohingya who were already living in the area due to previous violence in Myanmar, there are now nearly 8 lakh refugees in camps in Cox's Bazar.