Special Correspondent/

The Economic Relations Department (ERD) is reluctant to release data on foreign credit flows. For six months, Maswari did not disclose foreign loan commitments, concessions and repayments. This information is provided on the website of ERD till last January. After that, the foreign loan information was not updated. Earlier every month the website used to provide details of loan commitments, concessions and repayments up to the previous month.

No official from the World Bank, ADB, Foreign Aid Budget and Accounts (Faba) Division of ERD agreed to officially comment on the matter. They said that no one else has the authority to talk to the media except the spokesperson of ERD. It is learned that no spokesperson has been appointed in the ERD.

However, talking to several officials of ERD revealed that loan commitments and concessions have decreased in the outgoing financial year. On the other hand, the loan repayment amount has increased. ERD is not interested in publishing such figure of foreign debt. None of the officials interviewed by the media refused to be named.

In this regard, the executive director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), a private research institute, said, “For so long, foreign debt information has not been published on a monthly basis – it is not acceptable in any way.” Before this, inflation was kept under wraps. Release was delayed when inflation increased. Now it has started with foreign loans.

Salim Rayhan also said, “The pressure of foreign debt is increasing, it will increase in the future.” External debt data should be disclosed for macroeconomic understanding. Maybe ERD is constantly updating foreign loan data for their own use.’

Although the ERD has not officially released the credit flow, it is known that they have compiled all the data on the foreign credit flow for the last financial year (2022-23). These data have also been presented in the coordination meeting of the department. On the other hand, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan had a condition—the disclosure of information on various macroeconomic indicators.

According to ERD sources, development partners including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan, China, India have pledged the lowest financial assistance in the previous five years in the just ended fiscal year. In the outgoing fiscal year, Bangladesh received only $8.8 billion in commitments, which is $137 billion less than the previous year.

The financial year 2021-22 was a year of great success in receiving foreign aid. A record 1,970 million dollars in foreign aid was released that year. In the last fiscal year (2022-23), the foreign aid allowance also decreased by $1.7 billion. Development partners gave a total of $9.27 billion in the last fiscal year.

Apart from this, Bangladesh had to pay 267 million dollars in foreign debt in the last financial year, which is 66 million dollars more than the amount paid in the previous year.