Chittagong port of Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Country’s overall imports grew by 6.01 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal year (FY), 2018-19, following a 105.07 per cent increase in fuel oils, officials said.
The actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) rose to $8.52 billion during the July-August period of FY 19 from $8.04 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank latest statistics.
Talking to the BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the overall import expenses increased mainly due to higher import of petroleum products during the period under review.
Rising trend of fuel oil prices in the global market has pushed up the overall import payment obligations during the period under review, the central banker explained.
Besides, oil-based power plants have also boosted the import of petroleum products, he added.
Import of petroleum products rose to $791.68 million during the July-August period of FY 19 from $386.06 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
On the other hand, import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for production came down to $787.08 million in the first two month of this fiscal year against $825.02 million of the same period of FY 18.
Declining trend of capital machinery import may continue in the coming months ahead of the upcoming general election, according to the central banker.
Most of businessmen are now following a ‘wait-and-see’ policy for setting up new industrial units or expansion of their existing businesses, according to the central banker.
However, import of intermediate goods, like - coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels, increased by 13.46 per cent to $711.13 million in the first two months of the FY 19 from $626.75 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Industrial raw material import also rose by 5.78 per cent to $3.11 billion during the period under review from $2.94 billion in the same period of the FY 18.
However, food grain imports, particularly of rice and wheat, dropped by 27.88 per cent to $221.18 million during the July-August period of the FY 19 from $306.67 million in the same period of the FY 18.
Import of consumer goods decreased by 18.70 per cent to $889.06 million during the period under review from $1.09 billion in the same period of the FY 18, the BB data showed.
On the other hand, opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, decreased by more than 1.0 per cent to $10.02 billion in the first two months of FY 19 from $10.13 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
BBN/SSR/AD