The Bangladesh government denied a Bollywood actor permission to perform at an event in the capital Dhaka in a bid to save dollars as part of austerity measures.

Actor Nora Fatehi wasn’t granted permission “in view of the global situation and with the aim of maintaining the foreign exchange reserves”, according to a notice issued by Bangladesh’s cultural affairs ministry on Monday. Fatehi was scheduled to dance and hand out awards at an event organized by the Women Leadership Corporation.

The ministry referred to the central bank’s curbs on dollar payments amid dwin-dling foreign exchange reserves, which slipped to $36.3 billion as of October 12 —enough to cover roughly four months of imports — from $46.1 billion a year earlier.

The International Monetary Fund is preparing to send its first negotiation mission to Bangladesh later this month to open talks with the government on loans the country has sought, according to AnneMarie Gulde-Wolf, deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the IMF.

The reserves “are still at a comfortable level, but the direction has been going down”, she said at a media briefing on October 13. The IMF is discussing an economic programme that will “contain measures to stabilize the economy”.