Disbursement of foreign aid in the just-concluded fiscal year (FY19) decreased by 2.51 per cent to $6.21 billion from $6.37 billion in the previous fiscal.
Referring to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) provisional data, a recent review report of MCCI said the $6.21 billion foreign aid inflow to the country in FY19 was the second highest after the previous fiscal's record inflow of $6.37 billion. The amount of foreign aid inflow in FY19 was almost close to its target of $6.35 billion.
ERD sources said the government received concessional loans worth $5.94 billion and $0.27 billion in grants during the period between July 2018 and June 2019. On the other hand, development partner commitments of foreign aid stood at $9.78 billion in FY19, against $12.27 billion the previous fiscal.
Out of the total commitment in FY19, the development partners confirmed $6.85 billion as loan and $1.255 billion as grant.
The MCCI review also found that Bangladesh takes Official Development Assistance (ODA) mainly from multilateral organizations or countries that provide soft loans or grants.
The country's largest development partner is the World Bank (WB) while other development partners include the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), China, the United Nations (UN), the UK's DFID, Russia, Germany, and India.
Sources said meanwhile, the government repaid $1.56 billion worth in interest and principal against its total outstanding MLT loans to overseas lenders in FY19. Out of the payments, it repaid $1.18 billion worth of principal and $387 million worth of interest from July 2018 to June 2019.
In the previous fiscal, the government repaid debt worth US$1.41 billion against its outstanding loans. Of the payment, it repaid $1.11 billion as principal loans along with $299 million as interest.