Foreign aid flow to Bangladesh during the July-October period of the current fiscal year (2013-14) was much lower amounting $576.8m compared to $809.6m fetched during the same period last fiscal year.
Of the disbursed amount during the four-month period, the amount of loans is $432.46m while the grants amount to $144.34m, said an official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD), reports UNB.
The ERD official said that the overall commitment for the July-October period of the current fiscal year (FY14) was $1326.11m including $1172.5m as loans and $153.61m as grants.
During the four-month period of the current fiscal year, the repayment stood at $341.34m including $275.32m in principal amount and $66.02m as interests.
The repayment for the July-October period of the last fiscal year (2012-13) was, however, $310.42m including $243.36m in principal amount and $67.06m as interest.
Of the major multilateral and bilateral donors, Japan provided the highest amount of $157m as loan during the July-October period of current fiscal year followed by IDA of the World Bank with $120m and the ADB with $108m.
Of the grants amount, India provided the highest $50m to Bangladesh during the four-month period followed by the UN System’s $47m, DFID’s $18.63m and IDA of the World Bank’s $15.96m.
Talking to UNB, another official at the ERD said that utilization of foreign aid has been affected since the country is passing through political turmoil over the last couple of months. He said that Implementation rate of the foreign-financed development projects was poor this time resulting in lower aid disbursement.
According to ERD, although the foreign aid flow to Bangladesh in the last fiscal year (2012-13) was around $3.1bn lower than its commitment, the aid disbursement was higher totalling $2.8bn in the last fiscal compared to $2.1bn fetched in fiscal 2011-12.
The commitment for the FY 13 was much higher as it was $5,926.05m compared to $4,764.52m during the same period of the previous year (FY12).