The government received total $251 million in foreign aid during July-November of FY06 against $692 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

The net foreign aid during the period also dipped as the government repaid $200 million in principal amount of the previous loans to donor agencies. The net foreign aid in the first five months of the current fiscal year stood at only $51 million.

In the first five months of FY05, the government repaid $185 million principal amount and the net foreign aid was $507 million.

In three of the five months of this fiscal year, the government's payment in the principal amount was more than what it received in foreign aid. The government paid $16.70 million principal amount in July, $1.30 million in August and $2.92 million in November.

Sources in the Economic Relations Division (ERD) said the project aid implementation under the Annual Development Programme was slow while the World Bank did not release $200 million development support credit, which the government was scheduled to receive during the period.

On the other hand, the government implemented only 23 percent of the total project aid allocation during the five-month period, the sources added.

The WB however released $200 million in January this year and the multilateral donor agency is also expected to release $100 million in education support credit in March.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already approved around $100 million in poverty reduction growth facility loans.

Meanwhile, the project aid implementation increased 31.5 percentage point in December, which was 8.5 percentage point more than that in July- November.

The government's bank borrowing also increased due to low inflow of foreign aid.

The government borrowed Tk 35.88 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year from the banks while in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year the government did not borrow.