Bangladesh, May 22 -- The upcoming national budget should not be presented merely as an account of income and expenditure; rather, it must carry a clear political and economic message on reforms, economist Debapriya Bhattacharya has said.

He said the government needs to place a well-defined economic strategy and reform roadmap alongside the budget to restore confidence among citizens, investors, entrepreneurs and development partners.

"A budget cannot succeed through isolated measures alone.

The government needs to explain its broader economic strategy through a coherent policy paper," said Debapriya, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue and convener of Citizen's Platform for SDGs.

He made the remarks at a roundtab...