BD gets highest $1.14b foreign aid in July-Aug

Bangladesh received the highest foreign aid worth US$ 1.14 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal year (FY), 2021-22, as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released loans amounting to more than half a billion US dollar, officials said on Monday.
The amount of medium- to long-term (MLT) loans is $194.75 million higher than the amount, received in the same period of last FY, 2020-21, they said.
In July-August period of FY 2021, the multi-lateral and bilateral donors disbursed $948.18 million as foreign assistance, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) provisional data showed.
The development partners, including the World Bank, ADB, Japan's JICA, UK's DFID, and Islamic Development Bank, disbursed concessional aid every year for development of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the development partners made commitment of $73.32 million loans and grants during the first two months of the current FY, the ERD data showed.
In the corresponding period of last FY, the commitment of foreign assistance was $354.04 million, the data showed.
A senior ERD official told the FE that the foreign aid disbursement in July-August period was impressive.
The ADB had already released some $557 million worth of loan, of which, nearly $450 million was given for procuring COVID-19 vaccines from abroad, he added.
Of the total $1.42 billion aid - released during the July-Aug period, the development partners disbursed $1.11 billion as loans and $34.18 million as grants, the ERD statistics showed.
In the same period of last FY, the government received $929.70 million loans and $18.48 million grants from the overseas development partners.
The ERD data also showed that the government repaid $298.22 million worth of interest and principal from its total outstanding loans during the July-August period of current FY.
Of the amount, the government paid $212.28 million as principal of the outstanding loans and $84.94 million as interest.
In the same period of last FY, a total of $266.23 million was repaid as interest and principal of the outstanding loans, the statistics showed.

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