Foreign aid to the country has dropped 42 percent in the first two months of the current fiscal year mainly due to slowdown in project execution of government agencies amid the pandemic, an Economic Relations Division (ERD) official said on Wednesday.
Bangladesh received $528 million foreign aid during July-August period this fiscal year making it 42 percent lower than that in the same period last fiscal, ERD provisional data showed.
ERD said during the first two months (Jul-Aug) the last fiscal year, external development partners disbursed medium-and long-term (MLT) concessional loans and grants worth $748.74 million.
A senior ERD official said “Poor performance of foreign aid-supported project execution is the main reason behind for lower aid disbursement. However, we have obtained a huge aid commitment over the years that have not been spent in time resulting in a lower disbursement rate.”
Out of total $528 million foreign aid disbursement, the Bangladesh government received $509.53 million in loans and $88.48 million in grants, the ERD data showed.
Meanwhile, the foreign aid commitment has been also less this fiscal than the last.
Development partners pledged $324.06 million foreign assistance during the first two months of the current FY2021, the ERD data showed.
In the same period of last FY2020, the foreign donors and lenders confirmed $1.45 billion worth of aid.
Out of the total $354.06 million committed, $320 million is in loans and $34.06 million in grants.
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