Loans amounting to nearly $600 million, or Tk 7,000 crore, disbursed from the Export Development Fund (EDF), which was formed based on the country’s foreign exchange reserves, have been defaulted, according to a Bangladesh Bank (BB) document.

Dhaka-based firms defaulted most of the amount at $558.7 million and Chattogram-based ones $29.7 million

Textile millers made the demand today

Established in 1989, the EDF facilitates access to financing in foreign exchange for input procurements by manufacturer-exporters.

Currently, the volume of the EDF is $6 billion and the interest rate on EDF loans is 4.5%

The Bangladesh Bank today raised the interest rate for loans from its export development fund (EDF) by 1 percentage point with a view to making borrowing costlier and thus saving foreign currencies.

Businesses can now repay their loans taken from the Export Development Fund (EDF) in three instalments.