The country's foreign debt service shot up significantly to an annual rate of 45% over the last few months, much of it on account of high interest payments.
The government had spent $1.86 billion in the first 7 months (July-Jan) of the current FY24 for repayment to lenders, over $500 million higher than the corresponding period of last FY23, government sources said.
They also said that Bangladesh's debt repayment jumped significantly mainly due to a record-high amount of interest payments against the outstanding total loans.
The rise in medium- to long-term (MLT) loans and a higher borrowing trend of the government have already created further pressure on the country's falling forex reserves.
The government repaid $1.86 billion to different lenders during the July-January period of the current fiscal, some $571.99 million higher than that in the same period last fiscal, Economic Relations Division (ERD) provisional data showed on Monday.
During the period in FY23, the government repaid $1.28 billion to the foreign lenders.
According to the ERD count, the government repaid the record-highest $760.74 million as interest against its outstanding foreign (MLT) loans during the past July-Jan period.
During the first seven months this fiscal, the interest payments alone accounted for 108% higher than that in the same period last fiscal, the ERD data showed.
In the same period in FY23, the government repaid only $365.87 million as interest for its total outstanding.
The government served a $1.096 billion worth of funds as the principal during the seven months of the current FY, $177.12 million higher than $918.91 million in the corresponding period of FY23.
Meanwhile, both the foreign aid disbursement and commitments had increased during the July-Jan period this fiscal, the ERD statistics showed.
During the same time this fiscal year, development partners made $7.17 billion aid commitments compared to only $1.76 billion in the same period last FY23, ERD data showed.
