Over the past 10 years, an amount equivalent to $68.3 billion has been laundered out of Bangladesh under the guise of trade.
At the current exchange rate (assuming Tk 122 per dollar), this exceeds Tk 8.33 trillion. On average, more than $6.83 billion has been siphoned off each year.
On 26 March, the US-based international organisation Global Financial Integrity (GFI) published a report on trade-based money laundering from developing countries in Asia.
The report highlights this situation for Bangladesh, identifying it as one of the top 10 countries in Asia’s developing region from which money is illicitly transferred abroad.
The report primarily focuses on trade misinvoicing—the practice of falsifying import and export declarations—as a key method of laundering money.
Earlier, in December 2024, a white paper committee formed by the interim government on the economy reported that $234 billion was illicitly transferred abroad between 2009 and 2023 during the previous Awami League government tenure.
At the then exchange rate (Tk 120 per dollar), this amounts to Tk 28 trillion, or an average of Tk 1.8 trillion per year.
During that period, the report alleges that corrupt politicians, businessmen, influential actors in the financial sector, bureaucrats, and intermediaries were involved in siphoning off these funds.
According to the GFI report, the average annual outflow of about $6.83 billion is equivalent to roughly 16 per cent of Bangladesh’s total foreign trade, with a significant portion occurring through trade misinvoicing.
The report also notes that approximately $32.8 billion of the total illicit outflows ended up in advanced economies. Bangladesh is identified as facing a particularly high risk of trade-based money laundering.
Such illicit financial flows pose a major obstacle to development and good governance, the report says. They weaken domestic resource mobilisation, reduce tax revenues, and constrain funding for public services and infrastructure investment.
According to GFI, larger economies tend to see higher levels of illicit financial flows due to their greater trade volumes.
For example, over a decade, illicit outflows amounted to $6.96 trillion in China, $1.18 trillion in Thailand, and $1.06 trillion in India. As a share of total trade, this represents about 25 per cent for China and 22 per cent for India annually.
To combat such practices, GFI recommends strengthening customs management, enhancing information exchange through regional agreements, increasing transparency in free trade zones, and boosting international cooperation.