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The ratio of Bangladesh’s external debt to gross domestic product (GDP) increased to 21.8 per cent in 2021, according to updated statistics released by the central bank. The ratio was 19.5 per cent in 2020. The external debt to gross national income (GNI) reached 24.10 per cent at the end of 2021, the statistics showed; it was 21.5 per cent in 2020.
The total outstanding stock of the external debt reached $90.79 billion at the end of 2021, recording 24.50 per cent growth over the same period of 2020.
Of the total external debt, long-term debt was 80.10 per cent, or $72.70 billion, while short-term debt was 19.90 per cent, or $18.09 billion.
The half-yearly report, titled ‘Foreign Direct Investment and External Debt: July-December 2021’, shows around 75 per cent of the total external debt is in the public sector, while the rest is in the private sector.
“For Bangladesh, external debt is one of the important financial sources for investment,” said the report. “The external debt of Bangladesh is the total debt which the country owes to foreign creditors. The debtors can be the central government, state owned enterprises, private sector enterprises of Bangladesh,” it said.
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