Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The country's cell-phone operators have emerged as the major receivers of overseas loan for purchasing equipments to expand their networks, officials said.
Out of the six mobile phone operators, four operators - Banglalink, Airtel, Robi and Citycell - received a total of US$281 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (2011-12) from foreign sources.
The companies of power and energy sector have received the second highest loan - $95 million - from the same.
The country's private sector received a total of $598.3 million as loan from overseas sources during the July-March period of the current fiscal, according to the official statistics.
"Overseas borrowing of corporate houses has become gradually popular because of lower interest rate and easier processing," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's central bank, told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the average highest interest rate of the loans is six-month LIBOR+4.00 per cent, which is no more than 5.00 per cent.
"We've urged the country's private sector to look for foreign loan, as it is cheaper and easier to get now," the official said, adding that it will ease pressure on the country's money market.
Currently, the local banks are providing loans to large and medium-scale industrial units at rates ranging between 12.50 per cent and 17.00 per cent, and to small industries, at between 13.00 per cent and 19.50 per cent, according to the central bank statistics.
"Such foreign financing will be helpful to keep the country's foreign exchange market stable. It will also help to improve the balance of payments situation," the central banker noted.
BBN/SSR/AD-20Apr12-4:30 pm (BST)
