Bangladesh has experienced bouts of democracy and rule by two military regimes. A caretaker government, led by military-backed technocrats, has been in place since 2006. Broad market-based reforms in the 1990s accelerated national growth, which rose from an average of 4.2 percent a year in the period 1986–1996 to 5.4 percent in the period 1996–2006. The IMF considers Bangladesh’s fiscal policy generally prudent, given its modest deficit and domestic borrowing levels. Microfinance services in Bangladesh are provided by a range of NGO-MFIs, microfinance banks, government programs, nationalized commercial banks, and private commercial banks. Group-based lending methodologies prevail. According to Bangladesh Bank estimates, NGO-MFIs (estimated at 5,000 in number) are the largest providers of microfinance services in the country serving 61 percent of all borrowers. A striking 90 percent of MFI clients are women and the average loan size is about BDT 4,000 ($57).