Bangladesh News

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has again stressed the need for raising fuel oil prices in Bangladesh, with a subsidy provision for the poor, as a means of making its economy sustainable.

“The economy is not sustainable… some adjustment is needed,” he told a courtesy meeting Friday evening in Singapore with a select group of journalists from developing countries who gathered there to cover the IMF-World Bank annual meetings of the Boards of Governors on September 19-20.

“Indonesia adjusted the [oil] prices despite political crisis,” Wolfowitz said replying to a question, apparently with an oblique reference to concern of possible political unrest just before the next general election in Bangladesh.

“Again, they [Indonesia] raised subsidy for the poor,” he said in response to a supplementary question about the Bretton Woods Institution’s mandate to stand for the poor.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have long been pressing Bangladesh to raise domestic prices of petroleum to make the economy sustainable.

Asked whether World Bank could arrange some budgetary support as Bangladesh might suffer from a deficit out of increased oil prices in the international market, the World Bank president again mentioned about the need for the adjustment of domestic oil prices