Bangladesh's economy is showing signs of renewed resilience, with robust digital transactions, improved external balances and rising exports. 

The latest economic update released by the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission highlighted these as the rebound economic activities are reflected in some indicators.

The report noted remarkable growth in mobile financial services (MFS), with year-over-year transaction volumes expanding strongly across categories such as merchant payments and salary disbursements.

March 2025 emerged as the peak month, with transaction volumes ranging between Tk 1,537,579.8 million and Tk 1,781,279.2 million, supported by festival-related spending.
 
Similarly, e-commerce transactions surged in FY25, climbing nearly 64 percent compared to FY24. 

Monthly transactions rose from Tk 14,487.9 million in July 2024 to Tk 23,654.2 million in May 2025, reflecting sustained growth in digital commerce. 

The report said agricultural credit disbursements peaked at Tk 3,654.74 crore in May 2025, outpacing FY24 performance, while recovery patterns reflected the harvest cycle. Industrial production showed resilience despite volatility, with year-on-year growth peaking at 11.39 percent in October 2024 after a brief dip in August. 

The GED highlighted a significant rebound in the external sector, with the current account balance posting a surplus of $1 billion in FY25-the first positive figure in five years. 

The overall balance also recorded a $3.3 billion surplus, reversing persistent deficits since FY22. The turnaround was driven by a narrowed trade deficit, strong remittance inflows and steady service sector earnings. 

Exports gathered fresh momentum, with July 2025 shipments reaching $4,770.59 million, up nearly 25 percent from a year earlier. Strong gains were also recorded in May and December, pointing to improved competitiveness and global demand. 

Imports, meanwhile, showed healthy recovery, with capital goods inflows remaining stable-indicating resilience in investment appetite. 

Remittance inflows provided another pillar of support, rising sharply throughout FY25. Monthly receipts hit $2,470 million in July 2025, a 29.5 percent increase from the same month in 2024. Seasonal peaks in March, May and December further boosted reserves and household incomes, underpinned by policy incentives and improved transfer channels. 

The GED said these positive trends, coupled with prudent policy management, reflect growing confidence in Bangladesh's economic outlook. 

The report, however, said rice prices continue to exert significant pressure on food inflation as well as overall inflation.

The contribution of rice to food inflation rose sharply from 40 percent in May to 51.55 percent in July. Medium and coarse rice accounted for the bulk of the increase, contributing 24 percent and 18.39 percent respectively. All three categories -- fine, medium and coarse rice --recorded inflation of around 15 percent in July. 

To address the supply situation, the government targeted the procurement of 1.4 million metric tons of Boro rice between April 24 and August 31, 2025. However, rice distribution in July was 62,889 metric tons, down by 36 percent from the same month a year earlier. 

In a bid to stabilise the market, the Ministry of Food on July 23 invited private sector applications for rice imports, with the deadline ending on August 7. The report said that these imports may take a few more months to impact market prices. 

The GED report also warned of possible erratic weather patterns in the coming months, which could keep rice prices elevated. 
 
It suggested that the government may need to speed up imports, enhance procurement and expand rice distribution under Open Market Sale (OMS) programmes in the short term to contain inflationary pressures. 

The GED, however, noted that the marginal increase should not be a cause for major concern. When the interim government assumed office in August 2024, it said, inflation was running in double digits, making it difficult to anticipate that the fiscal year would close at around 8.5 percent.
 
The update said multiple macroeconomic challenges in the first half of FY2024-25 have since been addressed in a "balanced manner." It is also the second consecutive month since February 2023 that overall inflation stayed below 9 percent and food inflation under 8 percent. 

While supply-side pressures remain, the GED pointed to coordinated fiscal and monetary measures. Bangladesh Bank has already announced a monetary policy targeting inflation below 7 percent by December 2025 while maintaining macroeconomic stability. 

The report highlighted that non-food inflation stayed stable throughout the last fiscal year. Among food items, contributions of vegetables and root crops fell sharply-by 6.48 percent and 10.34 percent, respectively-helping ease food inflation. 

At a more disaggregated level, items like hilsa, brinjal, tomato, soybean oil and pangas also contributed moderately to easing pressures, while potato and onion saw their contribution to food inflation decline by 15.71 percent and 7.93 percent. 

Looking ahead, the GED stressed the importance of close monitoring of domestic market conditions and timely supply of agricultural inputs to contain inflationary pressures further. 

Companies and organisations will be required to file tax returns on the income generated by employee welfare funds from the current fiscal year and pay a 27.5 percent tax on the earnings. 

The Income Tax Act 2023 incorporates the provision, lifting the tax exemption and amnesty on the compulsion to file returns for funds such as provident funds, gratuity funds and workers' profit participation funds maintained by the private sector.

The law, however, has exempted government-managed provident funds from taxation, raising questions.

TIM Nurul Kabir, executive director of the Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said there were many other avenues to collect tax.

"Employees benefit from provident funds after their retirement. So, the authority should not slap taxes on retirement benefit."

He said while levying the tax, the government has not treated provident funds of the private and public sectors equally.

"It is discriminatory," he said, adding that they would appeal to the tax authority for the withdrawal of the tax on income from provident funds.

Debabrata Roy Chowdhury, director for legal, regulatory and corporate affairs at Nestlé Bangladesh PLC, said the introduction of income tax on trust funds would lower the overall income from such schemes.

"This will have an adverse long-term impact on retired employees of private organisations."

Chowdhury urged the authority to address the issue in line with the spirit of the government's initiatives aimed at ensuring social security for private sector employees.

"The recent introduction of the universal pension scheme for private sector employees is a good example of that."

A senior official of the NBR, on condition of anonymity, said the income of government-managed provident funds was exempted in line with the Provident Fund Act 1925.

He said provident funds under the private sector had been historically exempted and there was no requirement to submit tax returns. As a result, it was unclear whether the funds were properly utilised.

"From now onwards, we will see proper disclosure."

The tax official said the contribution of payroll tax is about 3 percent of the total income tax although it should increase as the economy is growing.

Md Shahadat Hossain, a former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, said income from investment in savings certificates, where people invest as a source of future earnings, is already taxed.

"From that perspective, the imposition of tax on provident and other employee welfare funds seems okay."

However, Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said social protection for private sector employees was low.

"Provident and other workers' welfare-related funds provide little social protection. The imposition of tax will increase inequality. But there can't be any discrimination in taxation between private and government provident funds."

Khan, citing the latest income tax law that replaced the Income Tax Ordinance 1984, said the NBR tried to find new avenues to increase tax collection and improve the nation's revenue-gross domestic product ratio, which is one of the lowest in the world.

"We can see the desperation of the tax authority to boost collection. This ultimately reveals the inability of the NBR to catch the tax evaders and illicit money makers."