International lenders and donors disbursed $2.31 billion in loans and grants in the first 11 months of the just concluded fiscal year 2012-13 against their commitment to disburse $5.91 billion in the period, said Economic Relations Division officials.
Disbursement of foreign loans and grants, however, increased in the period by $ 611.71 million or 36 per cent than that of the same period of the previous fiscal year 2011-12, ERD data released on Tuesday showed.
Net inflow of foreign loans and grants, however, stood only at $1,003.62 million or 44 per cent of total disbursement as government had to pay back $1,301.71 million or 56 per cent as principals and interest on previous year’s loans, the data showed.
Principals and interest repayment also increased in July-May of the concluding fiscal year compared with that of the same period of the previous fiscal year.
In July-May 2011-12, the government repaid $872.82 million as principal and interest on previous year’s loans, the data showed.
Lenders and donors disbursed $1,693.62 million in the first 11 months of the previous fiscal year against the commitment to disburse $4,407.49 million.
Bangladesh has already received foreign loans and grants worth $271.89 million more in July-May than that of entire fiscal year of 2011-12 when disbursement stood at $2,033.44 million, ERD officials said.
Disbursement, however, remained lower at only 39 per cent compared with the commitment made to Bangladesh by the lenders and donors.
ERD officials said that the amount of disbursement remained lower because of lower-than-expected rate of implementation of foreign-funded projects under the annual development programme.
Disbursement would have increased further if implementation rate of foreign-funded projects got momentum, they said.
Out of $2.31 billion, lenders disbursed $1,715.96 million as loans while donors provided $589.38 million in grants in July-May.
In the period, the government repaid $847.72 million as principals and $183.99 million as interest on previous year’s loans.
According to the data, lenders and donors committed to disburse of $5,341.74 million in loans and $572.64 million in grants in the period.
Due to lower disbursement, the amount of foreign aid in the pipeline is increasing over the years and stood at more than $ 16 billion till now.
According to the data, of the amount disbursed in the July-May period of the fiscal year, the International Development Association, the soft loan window of the World Bank, came out as the top lender and released $631.68 million, followed by the Asian Development Bank with $566.61 million and Japan International Cooperation Agency with $338.37 million.
China provided $175.69 million, India gave $179.48 million and European Union provided $68.07 million during the period, the data showed.
ERD estimated that disbursement would stand at around $ 2.7 billion by the end of the year.
-With New Age input
