Foreign loan commitments dip by 50pc in July-Oct

Commitments made by the international lenders and development partners to give loans and grants to Bangladesh declined by more than 50 per cent in the first four months of the current fiscal year of 2014-2015, officials of the Economic Relations Division said.
Disbursement of foreign loans and grants, however, increased by around 18 per cent in the July-October period of the fiscal year, they said.
They said that some big lenders and development partners including World Bank were yet to come forward with pledge at expected level that resulted in significant fall in the figure of total commitments.
It is expected that they will announce about their loans and grants in coming months as some projects remain under process, they said.
According to the ERD data released on Thursday, in the July-October period of the current fiscal year foreign lenders and donors committed to provide loans and grants of $659.18 million which was $1,326.11 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.
Commitments in loans and grants, both, declined in the period as they pledged to give $600 million as loans and $59.18 million as grants against $1,172.50 million and $153.61 million respectively in the same period of last year, the data showed.
According to the ERD data, foreign lenders and donors disbursed $678.67 million in the period.
Of the disbursed amount, 582.94 million were in loans and $95.73 million were in grants.
In July-October of last year, they disbursed $576.80 million including $432.64 million in loans.
Repayment in the period declined slightly as the government repaid $461.62 million as principal and interests of loans for previous years, the data showed.
Of the repaid amount, principal amount was $ 394.44 million while interest amount was $67.17 million.
In July-October of last year, the government repaid $466.34 million.
ERD officials said that both commitments and disbursement would increase in the coming months as the government was negotiating with the lenders and donors to get finance from international lenders and development partners for different projects.
The government has also taken some initiatives to expedite progress in implementation of the donor-financed projects, they said.
The International Development Association, the soft loan window of the World Bank, came out as the top lender in the first four months of the current fiscal year by disbursing $156.32 million and the Asian Development Bank became second with $149.04 million while the International Fund for Agricultural Development disbursed $116.95 million, Japan $116.05 million, China $77.31 million, Islamic Development Bank $40.78 million and India disbursed $8.25 million in loans and grants.