To tackle inflation and ensure a stable exchange rate, Bangladesh now seriously needs to take loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF) but the statement from the government is not encouraging, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya has said.
“Sri Lanka's experience shows that borrowing from the IMF is necessary before the situation worsens. By taking this loan, the world can see that the IMF is with Bangladesh. Then, confidence will increase and it will be possible to retain the value of taka against dollar,” he said while addressing an online discussion with journalists titled 'Top Twenty Mega Projects in Bangladesh: Trends and Status' on Thursday.
Dr Debapriya said that currently, the cost of 20 mega projects of Bangladesh is reaching $70 billion, which is 61 per cent or $43 billion in foreign debt.
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“This debt repayment pressure will in action from 2024 and debt service liabilities will increase from the current 1 per cent of GDP to 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent. The first debt repayment pressure will come from China, and later from Russia,” he also noted.
Bangladesh has to repay the most debt to Russia, Japan and China.
Of which, 36.6 per cent of the total debt repayment will go to Russia, 35 per cent to Japan and 21 per cent to China, as calculated by Debapriya.
