Dhaka, Jan. 9 -- Concerns over overlapping loans and rising debt burdens are increasingly overshadowing the achievements of microcredit sector, prompting calls for deeper research and policy intervention.

Officials and experts warn that many borrowers are becoming trapped in a "debt spiral", taking on new loans to repay old ones, undermining the sector's long-held reputation as a tool for poverty alleviation.

These concerns were highlighted on Thursday at an inception seminar titled "Debt Spiral in Bangladesh's Microfinance: An Assessment of Its Size and Implication for Indebted Households and Suggestions for Remedial Measures", organised by the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA).

The study, now under way, aims to assess the scale ...