Twenty-one banks managed to keep their bad loan ratios under 5 percent of their total lending, even amid turbulence last year that rattled the sector and eventually pushed up the industry average of bad loans to 16.8 percent.
Says its chairman in interview with The Daily Star
Ten banks lost Tk 23,700cr in deposits last year as peers saw growth of up to 32%
For three banks, 2024 brought cause for celebration as they crossed the milestone of Tk 1,000 crore in annual profits for the first time. But for nine others, it was a year of reckoning, marked by mounting losses and a desperate fight for survival.
The 50 banks collectively earned Tk 39,958 crore from treasury bonds in 2024, up from Tk 27,626 crore in the previous year, according to an analysis of their audited financial statements.
United Commercial Bank (UCB), one of the oldest private banks in Bangladesh, looks to return to sustainable profitability within around two years as it takes steps to improve governance, recover loans, and enhance asset quality.
The stock market has almost closed the books on the fiscal year (FY) 2024-25 without a single company getting listed through an initial public offering (IPO), a rare event not seen in decades.
Most listed companies saw their profits shrink in the January-March period of the current year as stubbornly high inflation pushed up business costs while weak consumer demand held back sales growth.
The finance ministry has identified seven major challenges including tight monetary and fiscal policies, taken to tame elevated inflation levels for more than three years, in next fiscal year that may increase unemployment.
The government expects the country’s economy to cross the $500 billion mark in the fiscal year (FY) 2026-27, buoyed by stabilising policies and sectoral improvements.
The interim government proposed a new framework for social safety net programmes, under which 7.68 crore poor people would receive Tk 37,076 crore next fiscal year to help them cushion the blow from high inflation over the last three years.
The government’s target to provide subsidies and incentives amounting to Tk 125,741 crore in fiscal year 2025-26 is creating high pressure on fund mobilisation amid a challenging macroeconomic situation.
High inflation has become the bane of low-income people’s existence for the better part of the past two years as spiralling prices have dramatically eaten away at their purchasing power.
Bangladesh’s public spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) is the lowest among nations on course to graduate from the least developed country (LDC) club.
Budgetary spending increased by 17.5 percent year-on-year in the first nine-month period of the current fiscal year of 2024-25, mainly due to a rise in spending on interest payments and subsidies.
The interim government may widen the gap in the corporate tax paid by listed and non-listed firms from 5 percentage points to 7.50 percentage points in order to attract companies with good performance records into going public.
Debapriya Bhattacharya tells The Daily Star
The US House Budget Committee voted late on Sunday to move forward with President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act", a proposal that could make sending money back home more expensive for three lakh Bangladeshis currently living in the United States.
