The foreign aid flow to Bangladesh was much better during the first three quarters (July-March) of the current fiscal (2012-13) as it totalled US$1,863.02 million against US$1,410.96 million during the corresponding period of the last year.The commitment for the July-March period was, however, much higher as it was US$4,933.07 million compared to US$4,294.60 million during the same period last year, said an official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD).
During the nine-month period of the current fiscal, Bangladesh made a repayment of US$880.32 million, including US$720.79 million in principal amount, while the rest as interests. During the July-March period of the last fiscal, Bangladesh made an overall repayment of US$711.50 million.
Of the disbursed amount of US$1,863.02 million for the July-March period, the ERD official said, Bangladesh received US$1,399.19 million in loans while it received US$463.82 million as grants.
Of the loan amount for this July-March period of current fiscal year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided the highest US$437.49 million followed by US$393.90 million by the IDA of the World Bank, US$316.77 million by Japan, US$150.20 million by China and US$50 million by India.
Of the grant amount, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) provided $95.80 million, World Bank $66.30 million, UN System $153.30 million and India $43.40 million.
According to the recent flow of external resources since independence up to June 30, 2012, a total amount of about US$56.5 billion of foreign aid was disbursed to Bangladesh, of which US$23.93 billion was grant and US$32.57 billion in loan.
Of the total amount, US$ 6.71 billion came as food aid, US$10.91 billion as commodity aid, US$35.96 billion as project aid and US$2.92 billion as budget support. The per capita debt obligation of the country has risen from US$6.59 in 1973-74 to US$155.3 in 2011-12.
The flow of external resources also showed that of the total disbursed amount of foreign aid up to June 30, 2012, around 12 percent came as food aid, 19 percent as commodity aid, 64 percent as project aid and 5 percent as budget support.
The major multilateral development partner is IDA followed by ADB. On the other hand, Japan ranks the largest bilateral development partner followed by the USA. Top 10 development partners according to contribution are IDA, ADB, Japan, the USA, UN System, UK, Canada, Germany, EU and the Netherlands. UNB
