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In the first five months of the fiscal year 2022–23, Bangladesh’s trade deficit decreased by six percent year on year to $11.79 billion — a development that is likely to relieve pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
According to data from the Bangladesh Bank shipped $20.74 billion worth of goods between July and November of the current fiscal year, up 11.75 percent from the same period last year.
In the fiscal year 2022–2023’s July–November period, imports increased by 4.4 percent year on year to $32.5 billion from $31.1 billion the previous year.
With the falling trade deficit, Bangladesh also registered an improvement in its current account balance, a record of a nation’s transactions in trade and services with the rest of the world, during the period.
Current account balance which was swelling until recently, declined to $5.6 billion in July-November of this fiscal from $6.2 billion a year ago, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the think tank predicted an improvement in current account balance by October-November period because of measures taken by the central bank to discourage imports.
There is effect of downturn in prices of imported items, he said.
It will ease pressure on external accounts of Bangladesh but to sustain it the nation needs to attract foreign direct investments, increase foreign aid flow as well as recover load from private sector, he said.
(TDS)
