The country’s trade deficit decreased by 22.02 per cent to $3.49 billion in the first five months of the current financial year due mainly to negative import growth, said Bangladesh Bank officials.
The gap between export and import earnings stood at $3,494 million in July-November of the FY 2012-2013 against $4,481 million in the first five months of FY 2011-2012, according to the latest BB data released on Tuesday.
The country’s trade deficit increased in the first three months but it started decreasing since October last as the import of capital machineries, industrial raw materials and food grains drastically declined in the period, a BB official told New Age on Tuesday.
He, however, said that the country had also failed to attain the expected export earning due to the existing economic crisis in Europe and sluggish market in the United States.
The BB data showed that export earning stood at $9.98 billion from July to November, increased by 3.96 per cent from $9.60 billion in the same months of FY 2011-12.
The growth in export earning in July-November of the last financial year was around 17.33 per cent year-on-year.
The growth in import payment registered a negative growth of 4.31 per cent in July-November of FY 2012-13 compared with around 60.82 per cent growth in the same period of FY 2011-12.
Import payment in the first five months of FY 2012-13 stood at $13.47 billion against that of $14.08 billion in July to November of FY 2011-12.
The BB official said that the export demand for the European market had declined in the last few months, so the country’s import of industrial raw material decreased in the period.
A significant quantity of industrial raw materials usually used in manufacturing of export-oriented products, he said.
Besides, the import of capital machinery also decreased significantly in the period, he added.
The settlement of letters of credit or actual import payment for capital machinery in July-November posted a negative growth of 28.02 per cent and industrial raw materials a negative 6.31 per cent compared with that of 82.90 per cent and 56.07 per cent growth in July-November in FY 2011-2012.
The BB data, however, showed that the service sector deficit in the first five months of FY 2012-13 increased by 42.83 per cent to $1.80 billion.
In the first five months of FY 2012-13, the country received $72 million from the service sector but it paid $1.01 billion.
Transportation, travel, communication services, insurance and financial services, information and communications technology services, entertainment, culture and their related services are considered as service sector.
The current account balance in July-November of FY 2012-13 stood at $43 million against a negative figure of $1,351 million in the same period of FY 2011-12 due to a 24.17 per cent higher growth of remittance earning year-on-year basis.
The expatriate Bangladeshis in July-November of FY 2012-13 sent $6.11 billion in remittance against $4.92 billion during the corresponding period of FY 2011-12.
In the first five month of FY 2012-13, foreign direct investment stood at $650 million, 11.49 per cent higher than $583 million in the same period of the previous financial year, showed the BB data.