Bangladesh's foreign aid flow has slowed significantly in the first 11 months of the current FY26.
During this period, there has been a significant decline in both new commitments and disbursements of foreign debt.
On the other hand, the pressure to repay foreign debt is gradually increasing; the principal and interest payments of the debt have crossed the $4 billion mark.
This information has emerged from the latest report of the Economic Relations Department (ERD) published on Tuesday (June 23).
According to ERD data, Bangladesh received $4.23 billion in new commitments of foreign debt from July 2025 to May 2026.
This amount was $5.49 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year. As a result, foreign debt commitments have decreased by about $1.26 billion in a year.
Similarly, a major decline has been observed in foreign aid disbursements. In the first 11 months of the current fiscal, development partners have disbursed a total of $4.58 billion, compared to $5.61 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
That is, the disbursement has decreased by $1.03 billion or more than a billion.
The concerned believe that the decrease in disbursement has put pressure on the flow of foreign resources to development projects.
Especially, large projects in the infrastructure, energy and transport sectors may have an impact on the slowdown in the pace of foreign financing.
On the other hand, the external debt repayment liability is gradually increasing. The ERD report shows that the principal and interest payments on external debt have crossed the $4 billion mark during July-May of the current fiscal.
As a result, the net flow of foreign financing has decreased significantly due to the decrease in new debt flow and increase in debt repayment.
Earlier, an ERD report published on May 24 stated that development partners had disbursed $4.236 billion from July to April of the current fiscal.
However, the latest statistics published at the end of May showed that the pace of disbursement did not increase to the expected level.
Economists say that slow project implementation, delays in meeting development partners' conditions, and global economic uncertainty may have contributed to the decline in foreign loan commitments and disbursements.
At the same time, external debt management is becoming more important for the government as installments and interest payments on old loans increase.