Business Report :
The forex reserve to foreign debt ratio dropped substantially in the past couple of years, indicating that the country has a smaller cushion of foreign reserves to meet foreign debt obligations.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, foreign exchange reserves to foreign debt plummeted to 21.7Z% at the end of 2023 from 35% in 2022 and 50.7% in 2021.
In just four years, the country’s foreign debt surged by $37 billion in 2023, up from $63 billion in 2019.
It was $96.5 billion in 2022, $91 billion in 2021 and $73 billion in 2020.
This continued growth in foreign debt has caused per capita debt to increase to $589 in 2023 from $362.10 in 2019.
Forex reserves, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) guidelines, plunged to $21.86 billion in 2023.
Using the traditional calculation of Bangladesh Bank, reserves were $46 billion in 2021 and $33.74 billion in 2022.
A country’s external debt refers to the total amount of money that the country owes to foreign creditors, such as other countries, international organizations, and foreign private entities.