Foreign aid inflow surges 58% in Jul-Apr FY22

The foreign aid inflow to Bangladesh has surged significantly by 58 per cent to $7.7 billion in the first 10 months of FY22 when compared year-on-year, thanks to the ongoing implementation of development projects that picked up pace following the Covid-19 crisis.

Major international development partners had released $4.8 billion in loans and grants from July through April in the previous FY, according to the data from the Economic Relations Division (ERD).

Development partners disbursed $7.5 billion in loans and $188.54 million in grants in the July-April period of FY22, a sharp increase from $4.7 billion in loans and $149.50 million in grants received from lenders in the same period last FY. The country also received a significant amount of foreign aid commitment to the tune of $5.8 billion in loans and grants from July to April this fiscal year, shows the ERD data. The figure was $5.2 billion in the same period of FY21.

Speaking to The Business Post, a senior official of ERD said, “The bilateral and multilateral development partners such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, China and India provide concessional loans every year for the development of Bangladesh.

“After the Covid-19 crisis eased, the Bangladesh governments got in a comfortable situation as the development partners are disbursing funds for completing ongoing development projects in the country.”

ERD officials said loan disbursement is increasing from the beginning of the FY22, thanks to improvements in the pandemic situation. They hope that the loan disbursements will increase further, riding on better implementation during the remaining period of this FY.

The Asian Development Bank disbursed $1.98 billion, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) $1.7 billion and the World Bank released $1.15 billion in the 10 months of this year.

Besides, Russia disbursed 1.05 billion, China $795.46 million, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) $290.09 million, India $204.48 million and others disbursed $512.86 million in the July-April period.

In the first 10 months, the government repaid $1.7 billion to the development partners. The amount was $1.6 billion during the corresponding period last year. Of the figure, the government repaid $1.3 billion as principal and $434.04 million as interest.

During the period last FY, the government repaid $1.1 billion as principal of the outstanding loans, and $427.37 million as interest.