Bangladesh's Foreign Debt Nearly Triples in a Decade to $113.43 Billion

Bangladesh's outstanding foreign debt has grown nearly threefold over the past decade. In 2015, the country's foreign debt stock stood at $38.77 billion. By the end of 2025, it had risen to $113.43 billion.

At the current market rate of 125 taka per dollar, that amounts to about 14.18 lakh crore taka in local currency.

The picture comes from the World Bank's International Debt Report 2026. According to the report, the country's foreign debt stock grew by 8.6 percent in 2025 compared with 2024. The World Bank released the report in Washington last Thursday (November 5).

The report says that, in line with the rising debt-service burden on developing countries, Bangladesh's foreign debt is also growing.

The World Bank report divides Bangladesh's foreign debt into two sources: multilateral and bilateral. Multilateral lending institutions are the largest source of foreign financing for the government.

Bangladesh owes $51.14 billion to multilateral institutions, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Of that, $22.63 billion is owed to the World Bank and $17.51 billion to the ADB.

On the other hand, Bangladesh owes $32.64 billion to bilateral lender countries. Of that, $12.72 billion is owed to Japan and $9.02 billion to Russia. In addition, private-sector foreign debt is about $10 billion and short-term foreign debt is about $15 billion.

Debt stock is the total outstanding debt of a country or institution at a given time. In other words, after subtracting what has been repaid from the loans taken at different times, the amount that remains unpaid is the debt stock.

For example, if a country borrows $1 billion in one year and another $500 million the next year, and repays $300 million of it, the total debt stock at the end of the second year will be $1.2 billion.

Although the amount of foreign debt has increased, the World Bank noted that Bangladesh's situation is relatively manageable on several indicators of debt-repayment capacity.

According to the report, foreign debt amounts to 24 percent of the country's gross national income (GNI). That ratio rose by about 6 percent in one year. However, the ratio of debt service to export earnings stands at 16 percent, which is 3.8 percent lower than the previous year.

In other words, 16 percent of total export earnings is spent on repaying the principal and interest of foreign debt. The decline in this ratio is seen as a positive sign for debt-repayment capacity.

According to data from the Economic Relations Division (ERD), in the 2012-13 fiscal year Bangladesh paid $1.10 billion in principal and interest on foreign debt. In 2021-22, that rose to $2.01 billion. In 2022-23, debt repayment reached nearly $3 billion.

In the last completed 2025-26 fiscal year, Bangladesh had to spend about $4.50 billion on foreign debt repayment. In other words, debt repayment has grown more than fourfold in 14 years.

There is a risk that Bangladesh's foreign debt repayment pressure will rise further in the coming years, because repayment of principal and interest on several large infrastructure and power projects is beginning or has already begun.

Repayment of instalments for the loans for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and the third terminal project at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is due to start soon. That money must be repaid to Japan. On the other hand, repayment of loans for the Karnaphuli river tunnel and the metro rail projects has already begun.