Weakness in financial sector main culprit for economy: Debapriya

The distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Debapriya Bhattacharya, on Thursday termed the weakness of the financial sector the main culprit for the economy, which is barring the country from moving forward.

“Reform has not been carried out in this sector for a long time. We are lagging behind for not caring about the financial sector,” said Debapriya Bhattacharya while talking to the journalists at a virtual event over the crisis of macro-economy.

Terming the current crisis a symptom of the disease, the public policy analyst said the lack of reform [in the financial sector] has created this crisis. The government is reducing subsidies [to different sectors] in tackling the crisis in the financial sector. But the government should have provided more subsidies now to control inflation and help the poor.

The distinguished fellow said an interim economic policy compromise for two to three years is needed for the country to deal with the crisis in the financial sector. This policy compromise will focus on keeping macro economy stable, continuing the production and employment and protecting the poor. This policy must be formulated on the basis of consensus. Then it will be possible to protect the financial sector, if the country falls into a political crisis in the coming days.

He claimed the policy makers are commenting [on many issues] immaturely and scatterly. They are coming up with confusing remarks.

"Some are arguing that the inflation will cease within two months while some say it will not be fixed before 2024. On the other hand, some are advocating for not taking loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while some are for taking loans. It seems that there are no politicians but bureaucrats in the policy making process," Debapriya added.