Bangladesh’s finance minister has warned that developing countries must think twice about taking more loans through China’s Belt and Road Initiative as global inflation and slowing growth add to the strains on indebted emerging markets.
AHM Mustafa Kamal also said Beijing needed to be more rigorous in evaluating its loans amid concern that poor lending decisions risked pushing countries into debt distress. He pointed to Sri Lanka, where Chinese-backed infrastructure projects that failed to generate returns had exacerbated a severe economic crisis.
Whatever the situation [that] is going on worldwide, everybody will be thinking twice to agree to this project,” he said in an interview, referring to BRI. “Everybody is blaming China. China cannot disagree. It’s their responsibility
He said Sri Lanka’s crisis highlighted that China had not been rigorous enough in deciding which projects to support. It needs to ‘make a thorough study’ before lending to a project, he said.
