Dhaka, April 21 -- Commercial banks' spotlight on burgeoning rural Bangladesh keeps fading with disbursement of formal credits and the number of branches in the least-developed areas constantly shrinking, leaving potential local economy in the lurch.

Officials and bankers have said because of the bank-financing crunch, condition of cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises (CMSMEs) in the rural areas is worsening by way of losing their market to imports.

Bankers have identified several factors like rising cost of fund and production in this higher-interest and- inflation regime that made a strong bite on the demand for credits in the rural areas after the covid-induced shocks.

As a result, the flow of fresh disbursement in the rural...