Bangladesh’s per capita debt has increased along with income.
The per capita debt has risen by Tk 460 in two years, State Minister for Finance MA Mannan, on behalf of Finance Minister AMA Muhith, told Parliament on Thursday.
The per capita debt stands at $169 or Tk 13,160, according to Mannan.
Till June 30 of the 2014-15 fiscal year, Bangladesh’s external debt (public sector) was $25.908 billion or Tk 2 trillion and 72 billion.
In June last year, the finance minister told Parliament that Bangladesh’s per capita debt was Tk 12,700.
On June 30 of the 2012-13 fiscal year, the external debt was $24.907 billion or around Tk 1 trillion and 951.46 billion.
In that financial year, Bangladesh paid $274.1 million or around Tk 21.476 billion as interest on external debts.
The amount was 8.6 percent of its export earnings and 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
According to the data Muhith placed in Parliament on Thursday, Bangladesh borrowed Tk 2 trillion and 72.65 billion from 11 development agencies and countries until June 30, 2015.
The World Bank has provided the most of the loans – around Tk 1.2 trillion and 3.435 billion.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) ranks second by lending around Tk 618.056 billion.
Bangladesh also borrowed around Tk 193.762 billion from Japan and Tk 73.567 billion from China.
Loans from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) amount to over Tk 33.582 billion. From Denmark, the country got over Tk 8.692 billion, from India around Tk 16.575 billion, Kuwait around Tk 10.755 billion, South Korea around Tk 27.918 billion, IFAD around Tk 29.354 billion and from others over Tk 36.502 billion.
In reply to a question, Mannan said Bangladesh paid Tk 14.19 billion as interest on external debt in 2014-15.
According to him, the Islami Bank topped the list of banks with the maximum profit in 2014, posting a profit of over Tk 16.21 billion.
The banks that earned marginal profits were BASIC Bank (over Tk 1.1 billion), Krishi Bank (over Tk 1.85 billion), ICB Islamic Bank (Tk 215.6 million), and the National Bank of Pakistan (Tk 996.6 million).
Mannan said mobile banking saw transactions amounting to Tk 1 trillion and 287.71 billion in 2014-15.
According to data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on May 14, the per capita income in Bangladesh had risen from $1,190 to $1,314.
In July, Bangladesh became a lower-middle income country with the Gross National Income per capita (GNI), joining those with annual incomes of $1,046 to $4,125.
Source: Bd news24