Bangladesh's foreign debts have increased nearly 3.5 times in last one decade to US$97.01 billion, a World Bank report says, on a note of alert about ballooning global debt-service costs.
Ten years back in 2012, the public-and private-sector debt stock was $29.15 billion, the global lender shows in its International Debt Report 2023, published recently.
Meanwhile, the country's overseas short-and long-term credits within a year grew by $5.534 billion or 6.05 per cent from a total stock $91.477 billion in 2021.
The aggregate debt accounts for 20.3 per cent of the GNI (Gross National Income), the WB report shows.
Out of the $97.011-billion debt stock as of calendar year 2023, the long-term debts have swelled to $75.50 billion while the short-term credits $18.53 billion and the IMF loan is $2.98 billion.
Of the $75.50 billion worth of long-term external debt, the public sector (including general government) borrowed $67.61 billion while the private sector $7.89 billion as last year, 2022.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh serviced long-term debt worth $6.177 billion in 2022, the World Bank says in the report.
Out of the servicing, $5.15 billion was principal and $1.04 billion was interest.
The Washington-based development financier in a press release after unveiling its global report has said amid the biggest surge in global interest rates in four decades, developing countries spent a staggering record amount of $443.5 billion to service their external public and publicly guaranteed debts in 2022.
"The increase in costs shifted scarce resources away from critical needs such as health, education, and the environment," it says about harms of the rising debts.
Debt-service payments including principal and interest had increased 5.0 per cent over the previous year for all developing countries.
The 75 countries eligible to borrow from WB's International Development Association (IDA)-a soft-lending window which supports the poorest countries-paid a record $88.9 billion in debt-servicing costs in 2022.
Over the past decade, interest payments by these countries have quadrupled, to an all-time high of $23.6 billion in 2022, the WB reports.
Overall debt-servicing costs for the 24 poorest countries are expected to balloon in 2023 and 2024-by as much as 39 percent, the report alerts.
"Record debt levels and high interest rates have set many countries on a path to crisis," says Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, in an alert note.
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