Bangladesh
Loan Repayment Foreign debt repayment of 203 million dollars in 8 months
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, 26 March 2024: In the first eight months of the current financial year (2023-24), the government has repaid foreign debt including interest and principal of $203 crore. Of this, the interest is 80.59 crore US dollars and the original is 122.40 crore dollars. However, during the same period of last year, i.e., in the first eight months, Bangladesh paid off foreign debt of 142.41 crore dollars.
In other words, the amount of foreign debt repayment increased by 61 crore dollars in 8 months within a year. The updated data released by the Economic Relations Department (ERD) on Monday (March 25) revealed the data.
According to ERD, the interest payment is mainly responsible for the increase in the cost of debt repayment. Interest paid in eight months was $806 million. In the same period of the previous fiscal year, $40.3 crore was paid as interest, which is double the amount.
According to ERD, loan commitments to development partners increased in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Development partners pledged $720 crore in loans, up from $178 crore in the same period last fiscal year. It is also reported that there is a target of realization of commitments of 992 crore dollars from various development aid agencies in the current financial year.
According to ERD data, the largest number of commitments received in the first eight months of the current fiscal year came from ADB. A commitment of $262 crore has been received from this organization. Besides, 202 crore dollars from Japan and 141 crore dollars from the World Bank have been received.
