July repayment more than double of aid receipt

Bangladesh's repayment of foreign loans in July, the first month of FY26, was more than double the external aid it received from global lenders that month, officials said on Thursday.

The country repaid $446.68 million against the outstanding medium- to long-term loans that month, Economic Relations Division's (ERD) provisional data shows.

On the contrary, external development partners released $202.75 million worth of assistance - $202.44 million in loans and $0.31 million in grants - that month.

ERD officials say since the government borrowed massively over the last few years, especially for budgetary support, repayments started rising in FY25.

According to the ERD, the July repayment of $446.68 million included $327.72 million in principal and $118.96 million in interest.

In the same month of FY25, Bangladesh repaid $385.67 million against its outstanding loans.

Meanwhile, development partners, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and Japan, committed $83.46 million in assistance - $82.59 million in loans and $0.87 million in grants - in July of FY26.

An ERD official said the growing foreign debt repayment would be a big burden for the country when that of the $11.38 billion Russian loans would start the next fiscal year.

In FY25, Bangladesh spent half the foreign aid it received to repay external loans, ERD data shows.

In that fiscal year, the government repaid $4.087 billion - the highest in history - and secured $8.11 billion in assistance.