Originally posted in The Business Standard on 4 June 2024
Bangladesh’s external debt situation has become worrying as both public and private debts have crossed the $100 billion mark, Executive Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue Dr Fahmida Khatun said.
She made the remark during a webinar titled “Challenges of Sustainable Growth, Development, and Democracy in Bangladesh” which was hosted on the video conferencing platform, Zoom, today (4 June).
She further said, “So if you look at the country’s debt GDP ratio, it is 21.6%, which is not very high by comparison with many other countries.”
“The IMF assessment also called it a moderate level. However, there is no room for complacency, because there are issues with repayment and debt servicing capacity. We have to take into account the capacity of debt servicing,” she added.
On central bank policy changes, the economist said the central bank is really confused and does not know what to do. They will suddenly adopt a policy and change it to another, she added.
The programme was jointly arranged by Asia Democracy Network and Sydney Policy and Analysis Centre (SPAC). The seminar was conducted by Jyoti Rahman, director of SPAC.
Opening remark was delivered by the Secretary General of Asia Democracy Network, Ichal Supriadi.
As a panel discussant, Economist Dr Syed Akhtar Mahmood said, “In the context of Bangladesh, between the elite and the poor, now there is not only a middle class but also aspiring elites.
“This class can be potentially very destabilising and powerful. So the government now makes policy actions driven by the need they feel to keep the aspiring elite satisfied.”
“But the problem is, the size of aspiring elites becomes very large in Bangladesh and they [the government] don’t have enough resources to satisfy all of them.
“Because you can satisfy them either by creating economic opportunities or do it through patronage. As enough economic opportunities are not being created, the government is increasingly resorting to patronage, and this is reflected in both the growing size of public expenditures and the falling efficiency of it,” he added.
Professor Naomi Hossain from the Department of Development Studies of SOAS University of London was also present at the seminar as a panel discussant. They also discussed democracy deficit and economic development, revenue system, inflation, monetary and fiscal policy, macroeconomics, market dynamics etc.