The Bangladesh Bank’s expenditure on printing new banknotes in the country nearly doubled within a year. In the completed 2025–26 fiscal year, the central bank spent a total of Tk 4.589 billion (Tk 458 crore 92 lakh 75 thousand) on printing banknotes, which was 95.46 percent higher than in the previous fiscal year.
The information comes from Bangladesh Bank’s latest audited financial statements.
According to the report, Tk 2.348 billion (Tk 234 crore 78 lakh 67 thousand) was spent on banknote printing in the 2024–25 fiscal year. In other words, the cost of producing banknotes increased by Tk 2.241 billion (Tk 224 crore 14 lakh 8 thousand) in a single year.
As part of routine currency management, old and unfit notes are withdrawn from circulation and replaced with new ones. The printing is carried out through The Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Limited (SPCBL).
Explaining the increase in expenditure, Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan said that the number of international suppliers of the specialized security paper and ink required to produce currency is extremely limited.
Because there are so few suppliers, there is little scope for negotiating prices for these materials. He said the sharp increase in costs was mainly caused by rising global prices of paper and ink, as well as disruptions in the supply chain. However, the overall volume of new banknotes printed during this period did not increase significantly.
Meanwhile, following the political change in 2024, the process of introducing newly designed banknotes to replace notes featuring the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman began.
However, the central bank said this did not play any significant role in the increase in printing costs. According to the spokesperson, the cost associated with changing the design is negligible.
Although the change in design created some additional complexity in the printing process, the sharp rise in expenditure was primarily due to higher international market prices for raw materials.
A review of Bangladesh Bank’s figures for the past five fiscal years shows that the central bank spent the highest amount on banknote printing in 2025–26. Previously, it spent Tk 3.842 billion (Tk 384 crore 25 lakh 41 thousand) in 2021–22, Tk 3.740 billion (Tk 374 crore 3 lakh 85 thousand) in 2022–23, and Tk 3.373 billion (Tk 337 crore 29 lakh 48 thousand) in 2023–24.
On the other hand, because there was no significant change in the value of the taka against the US dollar, the exchange rate had a negligible impact on the increase in printing costs.
According to the central bank’s figures, the average interbank exchange rate was Tk 122.77 per US dollar at the end of June 2025, compared with Tk 122.85 in June 2026. This means the taka depreciated by only 8 poisha, or 0.07 percent, over the year.
Therefore, the main reason the cost nearly doubled was the increase in international market prices of raw materials, rather than fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate.
