Dhaka, May 30 -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Bangladesh government's long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to B1 from Ba3. saying the outlook is stable but gross foreign exchange reserves will remain below $30 billion for the next two to three years.

Together with institutional weaknesses uncovered during the ongoing global economic crisis, Bangladesh's persistently high external vulnerability and liquidity risks led Moody's to downgrade the country's ratings, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday, as the government is preparing to unveil its budget for FY24 later this week.

Concluding a review initiated about six months ago, the credit rating agency affirmed short term issuer ratings of the government at Not Pr...