Foreign-aid flow into the country hit a US$3.0 billion in the last financial year following a significant rise in disbursement by the World Bank and China, officials said.
The concessional aid inflow during the July 2013-June 2014 period was $189 million higher than previous fiscal year's $2.81 billion.
It also marks a rise by $50 million over the $2.95 billion target for the past fiscal, according to Economic Relations Division (ERD) data, released Monday.
The ERD statistics showed that the multilateral and bilateral donors made commitment of $5.84 billion worth of medium- and long-term loans (MLTL) and grants in the last fiscal for bankrolling Bangladesh's development recipe.
In the previous FY2013, the development partners had pledged $5.85 billion worth of loans and grants.
"Since the World Bank and China had come forward with increased assistance, the overall aid inflow was recorded highest in the last fiscal," a senior ERD official told The Financial Express.
The World Bank has disbursed a record-high $950 million (including $140 million of the multi-donor trust fund) and the Chinese government $466 million.
Meanwhile, the aid disbursement by Bangladesh's second-largest bilateral donor-the Asian Development Bank - plummeted as the ADB gave $469 million worth of assistance in the last fiscal, $283 million lower than that in the previous FY2013.
Among other development partners, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) disbursed $337.54 million, UN systems $177.60 million, UK's Department for International Development (DFID) $134.53 million, India $115.15 million and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) $67.43 million in assistance.
Out of the total $3.0 billion aid in the last fiscal, the Bangladesh's multilateral and bilateral development partners lent $2.27 billion in loans and $723.60 million in grants.
Meanwhile, the donors 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.
It is good news for the country that the year-on-year concessional credit inflow from the external sources is picking up, said Professor M. A. Taslim of Dhaka University's Economics Department.
"But proper utilisation of the external assistance is the main challenge for the country," he told the FE correspondent, in an implicit reference to low rates of implementation of foreign-aided projects in the past.
"If the government can use it properly and get returns accordingly, the foreign aid will be very much helpful for the economy," he added.
Prof Taslim said the government should take more soft loans from the external sources and invest the money for development of the country's infrastructure rather than borrow from the local costly sources.
Meanwhile, the government has repaid $1.23 billion funds as principal and interests for the outstanding MLT 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..
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