Bangladesh’s economy under interim regime in doldrums, debt burden growing apace
By Our Correspondent
Agartala, November 23, 2025
The illegitimate interim regime of Bangladesh led by Md Yunus is leading the poverty-stricken country to a deeper crisis, with the gap between internal and external debt and revenue collection widening fast. This harsh reality has come out in sharp relief from a bulletin issued by the Central Bank of the country yesterday.
The bulletin confirms the lingering fear over the state of the lawless country’s economic slide. According to the bulletin Bangladesh’s government debt is increasing alarmingly due to low revenue, investment slowdown, political uncertainty, deteriorating law and order, and overall weakness of the economy.Despite the increase in expenditure on state administration, revenue is not increasing at the desired level.
As a result, the government is forced to borrow more than before to meet the deficit. In that vein, the government’s total debt has increased by about Tk250,000 crore over the last year, which is one of the fastest debt growth events in recent history.According to the latest debt bulletin of the Finance Division, total government debt stood at Tk2,144,340 crore in June 2025, which is about 14% more than Tk1,889,000 crore a year ago, that is before the forcible seizure of power by the interim regime on the back of a country-wide mob uprising.
Of this debt, foreign debt is Tk949,000 crore, and domestic debt is about Tk1,195,000 crore.According to Bangladesh’s Central Bank data, the government borrowed a net of Tk72,372 crore from banks in the last financial year 2024-2025, which was one of the highest in the last four fiscal years. It is Tk26,628 crore less than the revised target for the last fiscal year.
Experts say that although the debt-to-GDP ratio is still under control, repayment capacity, interest pressure, and weakness in export revenue may pose major risks in the coming years.According to the Finance Ministry, when the Awami League government took office in 2009, the government’s debt balance was Tk276,830 crore.
Accordingly, during the Awami League’s one-and-a-half-decade rule, the government’s debt balance increased by Tk1,558,206 crore.That is, it increased by an average of about Tk100,000 crore every year during the Awami League government’s tenure.However, despite the slowdown in development work, the government’s debt has increased by about Tk250,000 crore last year.
The pace of private investment in the country has been low for a long time. Political uncertainty, high interest rates, the dollar crisis, increasing import costs, and instability in the banking sector have discouraged new investment.
As a result, new jobs are not being created due to the lack of expansion of the manufacturing sector.
The revenue collection deficit is estimated to be in the millions.Forced to meet this deficit, policymakers are relying on domestic debt. According to government statistics, Bangladesh’s revenue collection has been at the lowest level compared to GDP for a long time. Bangladesh is lagging behind in revenue collection in South Asia due to business uncertainty, investment stagnation, and market contraction, a large deficit in revenue collection that has been created for two years.
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