Per capita debt up 65pc in 5yrs

The government has been implementing development projects with domestic resources as well as internal and foreign loans.
As a result, the government's borrowing has been increasing.

However, compared to country's gross development product (GDP), the debt hasn't yet become dangerous.
According to the latest report of Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh's domestic and external debts stands d at around Tk 16.14 lakh crore.

As a result, the per capita debt burden on people stands at around Tk 95,020. But the per capita income of the country's people is still higher than per capita debt. The current annual per capita income of the people of the country is $ 2,793, which is around Tk 3.3 lakh.

Though Bangladesh is still in a good position in terms of debt-GDP ratio compared to many countries, a big portion of money is spent on loan servicing, according to economist Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI).

He said that even if the income is higher, the risk of debt is now a headache due to low revenue collection, supply chain disruption under the impact of Russia-Ukraine war, trade deficits reducing the government's debt repayment capacity.

He said that as Russia-Ukraine War and trade deficits reduced the government's capacity to repay credits, the country may have to face huge challenges, if borrowings from abroad continue to increase.

However, Ahsan H Mansurm said, "Considering the debt-GDP ratio, it is not risky yet, but the problem is slow revenue collection and the lowest tax-GDP ratio of the country."