Staff Correspondent:

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh repaid $3.212 billion in principal and interest to development partners, according to the latest report from the Economic Relations Division (ERD) published on Wednesday (April 30).

This represents a 24.9% increase compared to the $2.571 billion paid during the same July-March period of the last fiscal year (2023-24).

Total repayments of the last fiscal year amounted to $3.37 billion.

The ERD report detailed a 32.6% rise in principal repayments, with the government paying $2.011 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, up from $1.516 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Interest payments also saw an increase of 13.8%, climbing to $1.2 billion as of March this fiscal year, compared to $1.05 billion in the same period last fiscal year.