Disbursement of foreign loans and grants increased slightly in the first five months of the current fiscal year of 2014-2015 while the commitments made by international lenders and development partners dropped significantly in the period, officials of the Economic Relations Division said.
They said that the disbursement increased by $15.46 million or 1.74 per cent in the July-November period of the fiscal year compared
with that of last fiscal year while the commitments declined by $540.7 million or 37.62 per cent in the period.
According to the ERD data, international lenders and donors disbursed $902.80 million in loans and grants in the five months of the current fiscal year.
In the same period of the last fiscal year of 2013-2014, they disbursed $887.34 million in loans and grants to Bangladesh.
The net disbursement, however, stood at only $369.8million in the period after making payment of principal and interest amount of previous years’ loans, the data showed.
In July-November, bilateral and multilateral lenders and donors made commitments of $896.6 million to give Bangladesh in loans and grants which was $1,437.3 million in the same period of last year.
The ERD set a target of commitments of loans and grants worth $6 billion in the current fiscal year and a target of receiving loans and grants of $2.9 billion.
According to the data, of the total disbursement in the five
months, $748.2 million were in the form of loans and $153.89 million in grants.
On the other hand, of the total amount pledged, $697 million were in the form of loans and $199.6 million in grants, the data showed.
During the period, the government repaid $532.20 million to lenders. Of the amount, $455.30 million were paid as the principal amount while $77.23 million as interest on the previous loans.
In the same period of last year, the government repaid $528.7 million as principal and interest on previous years’ loans.
In the July-November period of this fiscal year, the World Bank released the highest $243.70 million in loans. The Asian Development Bank disbursed $183.94 million in loans, JICA $43.5 million, IDB $40.80 million and other lenders and donors released $423.34 million.
-With New Age input
