Commitments of loans and grants made by international lenders and development partners declined by 27 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year compared with that of corresponding period of the last year, Economic Relations Division data released on Monday showed.
On the other hand, disbursement of foreign loans and grants also remained static as international lenders and donors gave $ 1,309.31 million in the first six months of FY 2013-14 to Bangladesh, only $0.47 million higher than that of the same period of the last fiscal year of 2012-13, the data revealed.
In July-December of FY 2012-13, they disbursed $ 1,308.84 million as loans and grants.
According to the data, in July-December they disbursed around 85 per cent of commitments they made to give as loans and grants to the country.
In the period, international lenders and development partners committed to give $ 1,541.94 million to Bangladesh which was $ 2,109.77 million in July-December of last fiscal year.
Officials of the ERD said that foreign loans and grants disbursement remained static mainly due to lower implementation rate of foreign aided projects under the annual development programme amid political unrest in the last few months.
Lenders and donors also followed a ‘go slow’ policy in the period marked by political violence over the 10th national elections held on January 5 without participation of the main opposition alliance led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party, they said.
They said that the amounts of both commitments and disbursement would increase in the coming months as political situation is becoming stable and international lenders and donors are assuring to work with the government.
According to the ERD data, after repayment of interest and principals, net foreign loans stood at $ 571.26 million in the period.
In July-December, the government paid $ 505.74 million as principals and interest on previous years’ loans, the data showed. Of the amount, the government repaid $ 411.58 million in principals while $94.16 million in interest on loans.
The government repaid $510.45 million as principals and interest on previous years’ loan.
Of the disbursed amount, international lenders gave $ 1,077 million as loans in the six months of the current fiscal year which was $1,053.90 million in the same time of the previous year.
During the time, the amount of grants donors gave to the country declined slightly as they provided $ 232.21 million as grants against the amount of $ 254.84 million given to the country in July-December a year ago.
According to the data, the International Development Association, the soft loan window of the World Bank, came out as the top lender in the first six months by disbursing $498.06 million and Asian Development Bank became second with $332.23 million while Japan International Cooperation Agency disbursed $215.11 million in loans.
Among others, China disbursed $ 76.27 million and India disbursed $ 66.38 million in the period.
-With New Age input
