Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s overall trade deficit widened significantly in July mainly due to higher import payments and relatively lower export earnings, officials said.
The trade deficit rose to US$ 236 million in July, the first month of the ongoing fiscal year (FY) 2016-17, from $47 million in the same period of the last fiscal year, according to the central bank’s latest statistics, released on Thursday.
Talking to BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the trade deficit may improve in the coming months because of higher export earnings in the month of August.
During the month under review, import payments rose to $2.72 billion from $2.64 billion while export earnings came down to $2.49 billion from $2.60 billion.
Higher trade deficit has also pushed down the current account surplus during the period under review, the central banker explained.
The country’s current account balance came down to $318 million in July of the FY 17 from $1.02 billion in the same period of the FY 16.
However, the surplus in overall balance of payments (BoP) also came down to $481 million during the period under review from $1.04 billion in the same period of the FY 16.
BBN/SSR/AD