‘Evaluate the sustainability of the country’s debt to avoid debt trap’

The country’s debt sustainability needs to be carefully assessed as the country has failed to address repayment issues, thus damaging its established reputation for repayment.

Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya said the repayment period for the Rooppur power plant is awaiting an extension for another two years, while payment of fuel bills of the airlines became irregular.

Such loan default cases like Rooppur may recur as the country may enter a debt trap by 2026 due to inflated economic growth and poor domestic revenues, he said.

“The Department of Economic Relations (ERD) has been appointed to assess debt sustainability, but one wonders whether it is coming out with real data or compromising it to appease politicians,” said the Distinguished Fellow of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on ‘Moazzem Hossain Commemorative Lecture’, on ‘Macroeconomic Challenges and the Way Forward’, organized by the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) at its premises.

It is the second program to honor the contribution of the late Moazzem Hossain, former editor of the Financial Express, and former ERF president.

Incumbent Editor of FE Shamsul Huq Zahid was also present at the program and spoke about Mr Hossain’s contribution to the development of the country’s economic reporting space.

ERF President Refayet Ullah Mirdha and Secretary General Abul Kashem also attended the programme.

On recent restrictions at Bangladesh Bank (BB) on journalists, Dr Bhattacharya said something strange is going on in the BB, prompting her to impose the ban.

“It appears that economic journalists’ access to information could lead to sabotage if transparency is guaranteed,” he added.

Such restrictions in data access contradict the government’s vision of building a smart Bangladesh, he said.

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