The government's repayment against external debts swelled up by more than 51 per cent to US$ 1.33 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year (FY) over the corresponding period of last FY, despite a considerable fall in the disbursement of foreign assistance.
Of the total, $769.95 million was repaid as principal amount and $562.23 million as interest for the July-November period of FY 2023-24, according to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) figures.
The amount of debt servicing was $880.46 million in the July-November period of FY 2022-23.
Officials familiar with the development told the FE that the amount of debt servicing soared as many of the foreign-funded projects had already matured to start the repayment.
Besides, increase in the volume of non-concessional debts was also responsible for the rise in the overall debt repayment.
Officials and analysts, however, predicted that the uptrend in the debt servicing might continue in the months ahead.
Despite having a steep rise in the commitment of assistance by the development partners, the disbursements dropped significantly during the first five months of the FY 2023-24 over the matching period of the last FY.
The development partners made commitments to nearly $ 5.86 billion worth of assistance during the last July-November period compared to that of only $ 4561.31 million in the same period of last fiscal, according to the ERD data.
Such a sharp rise in commitments was mainly due to the pledges of increased credit support from key development partners namely the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency in recent times.
On the other hand, disbursements of assistance by the donors declined to nearly $2.12 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year against about $2.46 billion in the correspondent period of last FY, according to the ERD figures.
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