Seven leading development partners of Bangladesh made no loan commitment in the first quarter (Q1) of the current fiscal year (FY 2024-25), officials have said, mainly due to the July-August uprising.
A senior ERD official said that no loan agreement was signed in the July-September quarter.
However, a US$27.41 million worth of grant commitment was made by other development partners, considered to be the ones who provide a small amount in terms of foreign assistance.
ERD officials said the seven largest donors are the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), China, Russia and India.
During the same period last FY2024, the development partners made a commitment worth $2.88 billion through signing loan agreements, the ERD data showed. Almost all the leading development partners made the aid commitments then, ERD officials said.
"The commitment will pick up now. As there were political unrests in July-August period, the leading development partners had not made any commitment," said another ERD official, adding that the scheduled missions of some development partners were even suspended during that period.
Now missions from all the development partners are coming to hold discussions on prospective loans with different government entities, he added.
The official said they are going to sign some big loan deals, including budget support, with the ADB, WB and Japan within this FY.
Some other big loan deals against different projects are also going to be signed during this quarter (October-December), he added.
In the second half (January-June) of this FY2025, the government is expecting to witness a big jump in aid commitments, the ERD official said.
Meanwhile, the foreign aid disbursement also hit hard during the Q1 as the development partners released $846.12 million, which was $435.6 million lower than the same period of FY2024.
During the Q1 last FY2024, the development partners had disbursed $1.28 billion worth of funds for different development projects and programmes of Bangladesh, the ERD data showed.
On the other hand, the debt servicing had swelled a lot in the Q1 this fiscal. According to the ERD, a total of $1.12 billion funds are paid against outstanding mid- to long-term loans (MLTL) in Q1 this FY.
In the same period of last FY, the government repaid $870.46 million in debt servicing against the outstanding loans.
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