Bangladesh repaid 3 times more in foreign loans than it received in July

The Bangladeshi government repaid nearly three times as much in foreign loans as it received in July, mainly due to lower loan disbursements.
According to data from the Economic Relations Division (ERD), the government repaid $453 million in principal and interest on foreign loans in July, compared with $446 million in July last year.
Meanwhile, it received $180 million in foreign loans in the seventh month of the year, down from $208 million in the same month the previous year. Fresh loan disbursements also fell a massive 83 percent year-on-year to $14 million in July.
Of the total disbursement, the Asian Development Bank provided $65 million, the World Bank $47 million, Japan $39 million and India $27 million.
Bangladesh merchandise exports grew 13.14 percent year-on-year to $4.43 billion in August, driven by a rebound in garment shipments, according to official data.
With this, exports in the first two months of fiscal year 2026-27 rose 5.43 percent to $9.16 billion, from $8.69 billion in the July-August period a year earlier, according to the latest data published by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) yesterday.
The readymade garment (RMG) sector remained the main driver of growth, with exports rising 13.92 percent year-on-year to $3.89 billion last month. Both knitwear and woven garment shipments in August increased from the same month a year earlier.
The growth was supported by stronger demand in major markets, greater buyer confidence in Bangladesh as a reliable sourcing destination and expanded production capacity, the EPB said.
The bureau also said rising exports of higher-value products and efforts to diversify products and markets helped increase export earnings.
However, EPB data showed that exports fell 6.30 percent in August from the previous month. Export earnings stood at $4.72 billion in July.
In August, several non-RMG products also performed strongly, supporting the country’s export diversification efforts, according to EPB.