Dhaka, Dec. 16 -- Despite being the third-largest budget-holder, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has recorded the lowest project- implementation rate, affecting overall development progress and potentially slowing Bangladesh's economic growth, officials said on Monday.

The slow performance has also dragged down the overall Annual Development Programme (ADP) impleme-ntation to just 11.75 per cent during the July-November period of FY2025-26.

The health ministry alone received Tk 122.94 billion, 5.16 per cent of the total Tk 2.38 trillion ADP outlay, but utilised only 3.09 per cent in the first five months of the fiscal year, according to Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) officials.

Poor execution by seve...