Our Correspondent
For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, the amount of foreign debt has exceeded 100 billion or 10 thousand billion dollars. According to the latest data of Bangladesh Bank, the total foreign debt at the end of 2023 stood at 100.6 billion dollars. The amount of this loan in Bangladeshi currency is 11 lakh 7 thousand 40 crores. (Rs. 110 per dollar)
This information has been obtained from the latest report of foreign loans of Bangladesh Bank. 79 percent of these loans have been taken by the government and the remaining 21 percent by the private sector.
15 years ago at the end of 2008, the debt was just over $22 billion. That is, the foreign debt of the country has increased by 77.85 billion dollars or about 342 percent in the last 15 years.
In December 2022, the foreign debt position was 9,652 billion dollars. As a result, the foreign debt position has increased by 4.12 billion dollars in a span of one year.
This information has come out in a report of Bangladesh Bank. It shows that the foreign debt status at the end of September 2023 was 9 thousand 655 million dollars. That means foreign debt increased by 4 billion or 4.09 billion dollars in the next three months.
During this period, the government took foreign loans of 442 million dollars. On the contrary, the external debt position of the private sector decreased by 640 million dollars.
According to the latest data of Census and Housing Census, the population of the country is 16.98 million. Accordingly, after last December, per capita foreign debt stood at 592 dollars. In Bangladesh currency which is about 69 thousand taka. But as of last June it was 574 dollars. 8 years ago which was a little over $257.
At the end of last December, the foreign debt of the government and government institutions was 79.69 billion dollars. And the foreign debt of the private sector has come down to 20.94 billion dollars.
By reviewing the Central Bank data, it can be seen that the amount of foreign debt at the end of 2015-16 fiscal year was 41.17 billion dollars. At the end of the fiscal year 2022-23, it stood at 98.11 billion dollars. This means that the foreign debt of the country has increased more than twice in the last 8 years.
According to the report, foreign debt increased the most since 2018. At the end of the fiscal year 2019-20, the amount of foreign debt was 68.55 billion dollars. In the fiscal year 2020-21, it increased by 19 percent to 81.62 billion dollars. In the financial year 2021-22, the amount of this debt exceeded 95.45 billion dollars. At the end of the fiscal year 2022-23, the amount of foreign debt increased to 98.94 billion dollars. And at the end of last year, the amount of this loan exceeded 100 billion dollars.