The foreign aid inflow to Bangladesh during the first month (July) of the current fiscal year (FY18) was a bit encouraging as the aid disbursement during the last month was $ 242.3 million higher than the corresponding month of the last fiscal year (FY17).
According to the latest data of the Economic Relations Division (ERD), the overall foreign aid disbursement in July this year totalled $ 368.24 million against $125.94 million in July last year.
Out of the totalled disbursed amount in this July, the portion of loan was $ 366.89 million while the portion of grant was $ 1.34 million.
Of the total disbursed amount of $ 125.94 million aid in July last year, the portion of loan was $ 124.44 million while that of grant was $ 1.50 million, the ERD data showed.
Against the disbursement, the overall foreign aid commitment for the month of July in this year was $32.73 million entirely from the grant portion while there was no commitment for loan in July this year.
However, the foreign aid commitment for July in the last year totalled $11,679.8 million, including $12.10 million in grants and $11,667 million in loans. There was an upsurge in the loan commitment in July last year due to the sole commitment of $11,380 million for the ongoing Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project.
During this July, Bangladesh made a repayment of $ 124.11 million, including $101.24 million in principal amount and $ 22.88 million in interest.
On the other hand, the country made a repayment of $ 67.98 million in July last year, including $53.06 million in principal amount and $14.92 million in interest.
Talking to UNB, an official at the ERD said the target of getting foreign aid commitment in this fiscal year is $ 6 billion against the target of realising foreign aid disbursement is $5.555 billion.
According to the ERD, the commitments of foreign aid increased to a record high of $17.86 billion in FY17, 153.33 per cent higher than that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year ($7.05 billion).
