The older you get, the more impact it has on you. This is a major cost not only in Bangladesh but also across the border in West Bengal, India. The country also has an increasing law and order problem. Government and police corruption are widespread. High interest rates reflect in part lenders' requirement for a risk premium in the face of this corruption.
Bribery is endemic.
The law and order issue has become so serious that government authority is increasingly irrelevant. Forty percent of the last government budget was for development expenditures such as roads, highways, hospitals, schools, and other economic infrastructure. It was financed by a Paris-based consortium led by the World Bank. Government corruption has placed much of this financing at risk. One day I traveled north of the city of Sylhet toward the Indian border.