Business Desk; Dbarta24— Government development spending in Bangladesh has suffered a significant slowdown, with Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation languishing below the 70% mark for the second consecutive fiscal year.
According to the latest report from the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning, the ADP execution rate for the outgoing 2025-26 fiscal year dropped to just 67.52%—marking the lowest level in recent history.
This persistent decline has raised fresh concerns among economists and policymakers regarding public investment efficiency, infrastructure momentum, and overall economic growth.
Declining Spending Trends and Historic Decline
The IMED report reveals that out of the revised ADP allocation of BDT 208,935.53 crore for FY 2025-26, only BDT 141,071.80 crore was actually spent.
By comparison, the previous fiscal year (2024-25) recorded an expenditure of BDT 154,189.43 crore with an execution rate of 68.18%. Despite budget allocations, both total expenditure figures and percentage utilization have declined year-over-year.
ADP Execution Rates (Five-Year Trend)
FY 2021-22 ████████████████████████████████████████ 92.74%
FY 2022-23 ████████████████████████████████ 85.17%
FY 2023-24 ████████████████████████████ 80.63%
FY 2024-25 ██████████████████████ 68.18%
FY 2025-26 █████████████████████ 67.52%
Historically, Bangladesh maintained ADP implementation rates well above 80%. However, official data traces a sharp, continuous downward trajectory over the last five fiscal years, dropping by roughly 25 percentage points from 92.74% in FY 2021-22 down to 67.52% in FY 2025-26.
Political Shifts and Administrative Disruption
IMED officials attribute this downturn to lingering administrative disruptions following political transitions and the takeover of the interim government in the middle of FY 2024-25.
The departure of several project directors and contractors during that period significantly stalled key development work.
Furthermore, officials noted that administrative focus shifted away from project implementation toward election-related and governance-focused activities across various ministries, prolonging the sluggish performance into the 2025-26 fiscal year.
“The fallout from political instability and administrative restructuring during the previous fiscal year continued to hamper progress in FY 2025-26, while election-centric duties diverted institutional focus away from development targets,” IMED officials noted.
The traditional end-of-fiscal-year spending rush also showed diminished force. In June alone—the final month of the fiscal year—BDT 40,308.12 crore was spent (19.29% of the total budget), compared to BDT 43,618.20 crore (19.9%) in June of the prior year, signaling a drop in absolute spending even during peak execution periods.
Economic Implications and the Way Forward
Economists warn that delayed ADP execution extends far beyond unfinished projects. Sluggish development expenditure directly stifles job creation, private investment confidence, and domestic demand—particularly in critical sectors such as transport, power, health, education, and water resources.
The latest IMED findings underscore a fundamental challenge: expanding the budget allocation alone is insufficient without parallel improvements in institutional capacity, project management, and accountability.
Restoring execution efficiency remains vital to ensuring public spending meaningfully supports Bangladesh’s broader economic trajectory.