Political unrest takes its toll also on disbursement
Loan and grant commitments made by the international lenders and development partners and their disbursement dropped in the first quarter of the current fiscal year amid political unrest, officials of the Economic Relations Division said. The ERD data released on Sunday showed that commitments shrank by 73 per cent and disbursement declined by 23 per cent in July-September of the FY 2013-2014.
According to the data, the lenders and donors disbursed only $422.7 million in loans and grants in the period while they made fresh commitments of $178.91 million in the period.
In the period, the lenders disbursed $298.37 million in loans while the donors provided $124.34 million in grants.
In the first quarter of the last fiscal year, the international lenders and development partners disbursed $545.99 million to Bangladesh against their commitments to disburse $657.11 million in loans and grants in the period.
Though commitments and disbursement declined, the amount of repayment increased in July-September of the current fiscal year, the data showed.
The government repaid $247.26 million in principals and interest on the previous years’ loans in the period, $30.44 million higher than the amount the government had paid in the same time of the last fiscal year.
In the first three months of the FY14, the government repaid $191.22 in principals and $56 million in interest on the previous years’ loans.
After the repayment of interest and principals, net foreign loans stood at $51.44 million, if grants are kept out, the data showed.
ERD officials said the current political situation in the country and slow progress in implementation of the annual development programme kept the lenders and donors cautious about making fresh commitments and disbursing loans and grants.
ADP implementation remained sluggish because of political uncertainty in the country in recent times, they said.
In July-September, the Japan International Cooperation Agency secured the top position in terms of loan and grant disbursement with $106.30 million followed by the World Bank with $104.47 million. India disbursed $62.42 million, the Asian Development Bank $58.4 million, UN systems $29.66 million and China $17.9 million in the period.
-With New Age input
