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Bangladesh has never defaulted on debt in 51 years: Finance Minister Debt | Bangladesh
Collected Finance Minister meeting with ADB President

Bangladesh has never defaulted on debt in 51 years: Finance Minister

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 27 Sep 2022, 09:21 pm

Dhaka, September 27: Stating that Bangladesh is regularly repaying its debts with great capacity, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that Bangladesh has never failed to repay domestic and foreign debts in its 51-year journey. Bangladesh has one of the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of just 34 percent.

He said this during a bilateral meeting between the finance minister and ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa as part of the annual meeting at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Manila, the capital of the Philippines on Tuesday (September 27).

The finance minister said that currently, the cumulative financing of ADB in Bangladesh stands at 27.60 billion US dollars. Out of which the total outstanding is 11.69 billion dollars.

He said that ADB has helped developing member countries including Bangladesh to recover from economic and health crises in Asia and the Pacific region by providing quick vaccines and cost assistance. It is very important that the Bangladesh-ADB Country Partnership Strategy (2021-25) is aligned with Bangladesh's national development and goals. "Where we are expected to have USD 12 to 15 billion in loan support over the next five years. ADB's continued support in achieving our development milestones is critical for Bangladesh."

Highlighting Bangladesh's capabilities and progress, Mustafa Kamal said, "Under the visionary and prudent leadership of our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has made significant progress in all socio-economic indicators. The recent development of Bangladesh has been widely appreciated by the world community. Bangladesh averaged 6.60 percent of GDP in the last 13 years. has achieved growth. But food, energy, fertilizer and financial crises due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the current geopolitical crisis have disrupted global supply chains and fueled inflation around the world. To ensure social and economic resilience, we have budget support from ADB as well as policy loans ( PBL) is required."

He sought the special cooperation of ADB in this regard and hoped that Bangladesh would also maintain close contact with the ADB headquarters.