Bangladesh has paid 1.05 billion dollars in foreign debt interest in nine months. According to Economic Relations Department (ERD) sources: The payment was made in the July-March quarter (nine months) of FY 2023-24. Which is 117 percent more than the same period of the previous year.
As a result, 94 percent of the money allocated in the budget has been exhausted with three months remaining. As a result, this year the foreign debt payment is going to be tight. Because, the government has allocated more than 1.1 billion dollars in this sector.
Channel I’s latest news and entertainment on Google News
Bangladesh paid $485 million in interest during the same period last year. At the same time, principal repayments rose 22 percent annually to $1.5 billion.
In all, debt repayments rose 49 percent to $2.57 billion in the July-March quarter of FY2024.
Due to the increase in the value of the dollar, the repayment of the loan has also increased in rupees. According to the ERD statistics, during the last July-March period, the total amount of interest and principal of foreign loans was repaid to the tune of 28 thousand 281 crore rupees. In the same period last time, its amount was 16 thousand 965 crores. The expenditure in this sector has increased by 66 percent over the previous year.
Mainly for financing big infrastructure projects, the debt repayment pressure is increasing with the government borrowing. These projects include bilaterally and multilaterally funded Dhaka Metrorail, Matarbari Coal Power Plant and Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
On the other hand, as of December 2023, the amount of foreign debt of Bangladesh government is 79.6 billion dollars. This amount is more than 13.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2022-23.
According to government data, Bangladesh paid $935 million in interest payments in fiscal year 2023, almost double the $491 million it paid a year ago.
