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Country’s debt sustainability needs proper assessment as it has been failing to address repayment issues tarnishing its long-established reputation on payback.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said the repayment period for the Rooppur power plant has been awaiting an extension by another two years while footing the airlines fuel bills became irregular.
Such incidents of defaulting the loans like Rooppur may appear again as the country may fall into a debt trap by 2026 due to showing inflated economic growth with poor domestic revenue, he said.
“Economic Relations Division (ERD) is designated to assess the debt sustainability but it can be questioned whether it is coming out with real data or compromising it to satisfy politicians,” the Distinguished fellow of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said at ‘Moazzem Hossain Commemorative Lecture’, on ‘Macroeconomic challenge and way forward’, organized by Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) at its premises.
It is the second programme honouring the contribution of the late Moazzem Hossain, former editor of the Financial Express, and former ERF President.
Incumbent editor of the FE Shamsul Huq Zahid also attended the programme and spoke on the contribution of Mr Hossain to developing the country’s economic reporting area.
ERF President Refayet Ullah Mirdha and General Secretary Abul Kashem also attended the programme.
On recent restrictions in the Bangladesh Bank (BB) for journalists, Dr Bhattacharya said something is fishy in the BB prompting it to impose the ban.
“It seems as if economic journalists' access to information may cause sabotage if transparency is ensured,” he added.
Such restrictions in access to data contradict the government’s vision to build a smart Bangladesh, he said.