About 25%-30% of the country's bank loans have become classified, significantly more than the official figure of 12.5%, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said Sunday, adding initiatives have been taken to bring down the default rate.

A staggering US$16 billion, on average, was siphoned out of Bangladesh every year during Sheikh Hasina’s “corrupt autocracy”, leaving the country in a “state of plunder” when she fled in the face of a popular mass uprising, according to a panel tasked to prepare a white paper on the country’s economy.

Deputy Governor of the Bangladesh Bank Nurun Naharhas been removed from two more sensitive key departments of the central bank.