The governor of Bangladesh Bank said that 18 thousand crores of debt has been paid without touching the reserve. Ahsan H. Mansoor.
Advising to be patient without worrying about investment and growth at the moment, he said, Bangladesh Bank has paid off the debt of one and a half billion dollars (17,870 crores as Taka 119) in the last two months without spending any money from the reserve. And as a result, the uncertainty in the import of goods has started to decrease. By December, the country’s economy will return to a more positive trend after settling all liabilities.
Dr. Ahsan H. Mansoor said, almost all petroleum products including fuel oil, gas, coal have to be imported from various sources. About 9 billion dollars were spent on it in the last financial year. Apart from this, dependence on electricity and fertilizers is also increasing. But, when the dollar crisis started over the last couple of years, those expenses could not be paid on time.
He said, in this reality, Adani, including Kafco, Chevron and BPC suppliers, including several foreign companies, are owed more than two hundred billion dollars. However, in the last two months, the central bank has paid one and a half billion of the arrears without touching the reserves. The governor hopes to settle the remaining part within a couple of months.
He also said that the government had unpaid, unfulfilled liabilities of 2.5 billion. It was a dollar. We reduced that to 700 million. A lot of money has been paid for fertilizers, for electricity, for Adani-Chevron. Everyone’s debt has been reduced somewhat. Our goal is to reduce debt to zero within the next two months. Then the liquidity in the market will increase.
Governor Mansoor said, after the payment of these dues, the pressure will reduce on the financial management. Which will speed up the overall activity. At the same time, preparations are underway to raise about $10 billion in loans from various institutions.
But, the governor is somewhat worried about the ongoing pressure of foreign debt and repayment of 103 billion at present. He said, to deal with the situation, you have to be patient for at least one year.
The governor also said, “If I get an additional 2-3 billion from the IMF, I will get another 2 billion from the World Bank.” Then two things have to be done with this 5 billion. The government will be able to increase some spending, thereby giving some momentum to economic activity. Don’t jump right now that I don’t have investments. Now there will be no investment, it will be less, that is the reality. Now the World Bank says our growth may drop to 4 percent. Maybe, I also think maybe in 4-5. Even if it is only one year.
