The foreign aid inflow has reached to its historical high of US$3bn in the last fiscal year thanks to increased disbursements by bilateral and multilateral development partners.
Some $2.27 billion of the total aid was in terms of loans and $723.60 million in grants, according to Economic Relations Division.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith expressed satisfaction over the aid flow in 2013-14, but said it would have been ideal had it reached $ 3.2 billion.
“I'm quite happy about it," he said, however, talking to reporters at his ERD office yesterday. "Aid commitment to the country has increased fantastically, but the disbursement is slow to some extent.”
The minister appreciated the World Bank’s substantial disbursement that contributed reaching the aid inflow to highest ever in the history of the country. In the last fiscal year (FY 14), the World Bank disbursed a record-high $950 million, including $140 million of the multi-donor trust fund.
About the pipeline foreign aid reaching over $19 billion, he said it was $18 billion on July 1, 2014 as compared to $16 billion on July 1, 2013.
Muhith said the ERD would issue a statement on the latest disbursements and aid in the pipeline within this week.
The donors had pledged $5.85 billion worth of loans and grants in FY13, according to ERD.
The disbursement by Bangladesh's second-largest multilateral donor, the Asian Development Bank, in the last fiscal stood at $469 million - down $283 million than the previous fiscal.
Meanwhile, the donors had confirmed $5.34 billion worth of loans and $499.36 million of grants in the last fiscal for disbursement against different development projects and programmes in Bangladesh, the ERD data showed.
The government has already repaid $1.23 billion funds as principal and interests for the outstanding public-sector debts to the bilateral and multilateral lenders between July 2013 and June 2014.
Among the repayments, the government paid $1.03 billion worth of principal amount for the outstanding debts and $202.47 million as interests.
In the corresponding period in FY2013, the government made $1.11 billion payment to the lenders for
the outstanding debts-- $908.20 million as principal and $197.50 million as interests.
