Dhaka, March 25 -- Foreign loan commitments and disbursements to Bangladesh have significantly declined during the first eight months of the 2024-25 fiscal year, primarily due to policy shifts and implementation challenges, while repayments of foreign loans have seen a notable increase.

Data from the Economic Relations Division (ERD), published on Monday, reveals that fresh loan commitments dropped by 67.3 per cent year-on-year between July and February, and disbursements decreased by 17.3 per cent in the ongoing financial year.

In the first eight months of the current fiscal, commitments from multilateral and bilateral lenders totalled $2.35 billion, a sharp decline from $7.20 billion during the same period last year.

Correspondingly,...