Foreign aid disbursement in Bangladesh increased by about 500 million U.S. dollars or 74 percent during the first five months of the current
fiscal year 2009-10 compared with that of the
corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Quoting statistics of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) under the country's Ministry of Finance, leading English newspaper The Financial Express reported Monday, the total aid disbursed between July-November period of the current fiscal year 2009-10 ( July 2009-June 2010) stood at 1.18 billion U.S. dollars.
Of the total amount, it said 1.05 billion U.S. dollars came as loan, while the remaining 133.37 million U.S.dollars as grant.
The enhanced disbursement of aid has taken place during the first five months of the current fiscal year,particularly in last November, as a number of development projects were approved in November against which global lenders including the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) have disbursed their committed funds.
According to the report, the ADB alone disbursed 705.05 million U.S. dollars in November, totaling 839.65 million U.S. dollars during July-November of the current fiscal year.
The amount of aid disbursed by the ADB during the same period of the previous fiscal year was 379.45 million U.S. dollars, shows the ERD figure.
It showed the aid disbursement by the WB was 188.49 million U.S. dollars from July to November of 2009-2010 fiscal year, of which 88.51 million U.S. dollars was disbursed in November.
The ERD figure shows the WB disbursed 138.06 million U.S. dollars during the first five months of the previous fiscal.
Quoting unnamed ERD officials, the report said the aid disbursement situation has improved following disbursement of larger volume of aid by the ADB and the WB against a number of projects and budgetary support credit.