If you’re a bit confused about how Bangladesh is getting so much money to finance not just the many many cards that BNP is giving out but also the oil crisis, then let me try to explain.
It goes without saying that Bangladesh is in a trade deficit, which means we spend more in buying from abroad than we earn from selling. And this gap is increasing. By about 13.79 billion dollars.
Source: The Daily Star
The Star Business Report states that ‘The deficit reached $13.79 billion during the seven months, up from $11.74 billion in the same period a year earlier. According to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, import bills rose 4.6 percent year-on-year to $39.88 billion. Export earnings, meanwhile, slipped 1.1 percent to $26.09 billion.’
According to BIDA, there was a 202% increase in Foreign Direct Investment last year from July to September compared to 2024.
Source: BIDA Press Release on January 2026
According to a report published on April by The Daily Star, remittance has increased to 26.2 billion dollars with just this March having 3.75 billion dollars.
And even with the war going on, we still have a foreign reserve of around 30 billion dollars.
Source: The Business Standard
According to a Bloomberg report, the Bangladeshi government is asking for $2 bn to fund the fuel crisis.
So we aren’t running out of money.
But the problem is with the future. You see, money coming in from abroad happen because people feel confident to invest. And this confidence can go away very easily, especially with what’s going on. For example, The Daily Star reported Bangladesh was promised about 40 billion dollars in foreign loans but only 3 billion has been given within the current fiscal year.
On top of that, these have conditions. And Bangladesh has trillions of dollars of debt.
So even if it isn’t a crisis right now, it might be in the future. But if Bangladesh learns from this and invests in the right places, this might push us to be better too.
