Bangladesh touts its bond market

Bangladesh’s domestic bond market is very small but it offers fixed-income investors a way to access the country’s growth story.

Speakers at FinanceAsia’s Bangladesh Investment Summit in Singapore on September 1 touted the currency’s stability and the country’s track record of having never defaulted.

Mohammad Mamdudur Rashid, deputy managing director at Brac Bank, said interest rates are beginning to fall, which should drive more companies to issue bonds, expanding the $18 billion onshore market.

The biggest gap is the lack of an international sovereign bond. Biru Paksha Paul, chief economist at Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, said the government was considering...