Comment on China loan: Finance minister sends rejoinder to FT

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal sent a rejoinder to the London-based daily the Financial Times on Thursday in connection with an interview published by the newspaper recently, ministry officials said.

The FT report said that Bangladesh Finance Minster, in an interview with the daily, warned other countries about taking loans from China but the minister actually did not mention any particular country, an official of the finance ministry said.

“He said that under the present circumstances when the world is reeling under severe economic shocks due to war and pandemic, no country should take loans without thinking twice. He did not mean only Chinese loan, he meant loan from any source” the official aware of the rejoinder said.

The FT report said Bangladesh’s finance minister has warned that developing countries must think twice about taking more loans through China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as global inflation and slowing growth add to the strains on indebted emerging markets.