Bangladesh fares better than other countries in foreign loan management

Dr Rehman Sobhan, renowned economist of Bangladesh and Chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said that Bangladesh has fared better than other countries of the world in foreign loan management.

"The trend of taking loans from the internal sources is on the rise for Bangladesh. But, we've fared better in foreign loan management as the country has always been agile in repaying foreign loans," he said.

The Eminent economist made the remarks on Monday while talking with the members of the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) held at its office in the capital's Paltan area.

Turning to the issue of foreign currency reserve, he said that pressures are being put on the country's foreign currency reserves due to various reasons, but despite that, no such bad situation has been created yet centering the reserve.

He, however, opined that if the reserve dips below the $10 billon mark, then the country could fall in danger to some extent.

Claiming that the economy of Bangladesh is definitely in better shape than Sri Lanka, Dr Rehman explained, "We have a big export basket alongside the flow of inward remittance which is much higher than Sri Lanka,"

For this, this veteran economist said that the overall economic situation of Bangladesh would never be like the devastated situation of Sri Lanka.

In order to keep a stable foreign currency reserve, he also suggested for controlling the imports.

Referring to the downtrend in inward remittance flow, he said this does not mean that the inward remittance has declined, rather the remittance is being sent mostly to the informal channel or through 'Hundi' other than the formal channel.

Mentioning that the government has done well in the power sector over the last 15 years, Dr Rehman said that the government would have to come out from the culture of paying capacity charge against the rental power plants.