News stories by Anis Chowdhury - Khalilur Rahman - Ziauddin Hyder

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Sep 04 (IPS) - The White Paper on the state of Bangladesh's economy will include a review of "smuggled money", according to the head of the committee, Debapriya Bhattacharya, entrusted to prepare the White Paper.

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Aug 27 (IPS) - Bangladesh bleeds as over US$3 billion drains from Bangladesh annually through offshore accounts. According to a recent report, close to US$150 was siphoned off the country during 15 years of kleptocratic Hasina regime's mis-rule. Nearly US$50 billion went out of the country in the first six years (2009-2015) of the Hasina regime.

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Aug 16 (IPS) - Bangladesh has become increasingly indebted since 2009. The country's external debt stock increased from US$23.3 billion in 2008 to US$100.6 billion in December 2023 (see figure below). Thanks to the country's mega-projects led so-called development with borrowed money under the now deposed authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina.

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Aug 06 (IPS) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are complicit in the gross human rights violations and death of democracy in Bangladesh. They continued to supply financial blood line to the regime, well-documented for its corruptions, human rights violations – such as forced disappearances and tortures in custody – and riggings of votes, including politicization of state institutions in its slide into autocracy. This is despite their professed commitment to transparency, accountability and good governance (IMF, World Bank, ADB).