Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s bilateral merchandise trade with China crossed US$10 billion mark in the fiscal year (FY) 2015-16 with balance heavily tilted to the Asian largest economy.
The bilateral trade rose to $10.45 billion in the FY 16 from $9.01 billion a year ago, according to the official statistics of the state-run Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank.
Bangladesh’s bilateral trade with any trading partner crossed $10 billion level for the first time.
Both countries are expecting further increase in bilateral trade and economic cooperation following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s historic state visit to Bangladesh.
As import from China increased hugely in the FY 16, the overall import payments stood at $9.64 billion from $8.22 billion in the FY15, the BB data showed.
Thus, import from China registered more than 17 per cent growth in the last fiscal year which was around one-fourth of the annual import payments of Bangladesh.
In the FY 16, Bangladesh’s overall imports grew by 4.22 per cent to $40.08 billion from $38.45 billion in the previous fiscal.
Besides being generally cheap, Chinese currency Yuan continued to fall, both against the US dollar and a basket of trading partners from September 2015 to June 2016.
The erosion of the value of Yuan also contributed to increase the import from the world’s number one economy in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms.
In a similar benchmark, Bangladesh is the 33rd biggest economy of the world although size of the economy is very small compare to China.
All types of cotton and cotton yarn, machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical machinery and electronic equipment and parts and arms and ammunitions are major importable products from China.
On the other hand, exports to China registered a moderate growth of 2.2 per cent in the FY 16 to $808.14 million in FY 16 which was $791 million in the previous fiscal year.
Woven and knit garments, home textiles, leather goods and handicrafts are major exportable items to China.
China has already extended preferential market access treatment for Bangladeshi goods with both the zero and reduced tariff rates as well as some relaxation in the rules of origin.
There is also very little complain from Bangladeshi exporters about Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) while entering into the Chinese market which is frequent in the case of India.
Trade deficit with China stood at $8.83 billion at the end of June, 2016 which was $7.74 billion at the end of June, 2015.
Trade deficit figure is simply calculated by deducting annual export value, available with the EPB, from annual import value, furnished by the BB.
BBN/SSR/AD