Bangladesh recorded a sharp rise in foreign direct investment in the July–September 2025 quarter, with net inflows more than tripling from a year earlier, signalling renewed investor confidence despite global economic uncertainty.
Data released by Bangladesh Bank show net FDI inflows reached $315.1million (m) in the third quarter, a 202% increase from $104.3 million in the same period of 2024. Over the first nine months of 2025, cumulative net FDI stood at $1.41 billion (bn), up 80% from $780m a year earlier.
The central bank figures indicate broad-based growth across all major components of FDI in the third quarter. Equity investment rose by nearly a third year on year to $101.1m, while reinvested earnings jumped almost threefold to $211.5m.
Intra-company loans, which had posted a net outflow of $45.4m in the same quarter of 2024, returned to positive territory at $2.5m.
The strong third-quarter performance followed steady gains earlier in the year. Net FDI in the April–June quarter reached $303.3m, up 11.4% year on year. Overall, inflows in the first half of 2025 were more than 61% higher than in the corresponding period of 2024.
Ashik Chowdhury, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), said the figures reflected improving confidence among overseas investors.
“BIDA’s core work is to improve the business climate and develop a credible pipeline of investment. It is encouraging to see this pipeline begin to convert into realised inflows,” he said. “The benchmark remains low, but these back-to-back quarterly gains show that investors are placing their trust in Bangladesh.”
He cautioned that inflows could ease in the final quarter of the year because of the upcoming national elections, but said a rebound was expected afterwards. “We anticipate a recovery post-election, supported by a strong investment pipeline,” he added.
Beyond realised inflows, BIDA said its dedicated investment pipeline for 2025 had already exceeded $1.5bn, in addition to traditionally registered investment proposals, suggesting further upside potential for FDI in the coming years.