Bangladesh’s trade deficit has almost doubled within 12 months, rising to $13.20 billion at the end of March this year, according to the latest data from the central bank’s balance of payment.
The data from Bangladesh Bank showed that the trade deficit was $7.03 billion for the July to March period of 2016-17 fiscal year, which means the year-on-year trade gap for the corresponding period was $6.16 billion, while the deficit was $1.47 billion in the month of March only, BSSNews reported.
The central bank said the trade deficit was the result of the slower growth of exports as compared to the growth of imports during the period under review.
According to the data, imports increased by 24.5% to $40.3 billion this year, as compared to $32.37 billion in the July-March period of FY2016-17. Meanwhile, Bangladesh earned around $28 billion from exports during the same period of FY2017-18, as compared to $25.33 billion in the previous year.
Furthermore, remittance has increased by about 17% to $10.5 billion from $9.06 billion a year earlier. The trade gap in services has also increased by 25.5%, standing at $3.33 billion in the July-March period of FY2017-18, while it was at $2.47 billion in FY2016-17.
The rising trade gap brought the current account balance to a record deficit of $7.08 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, while it was $1.37 billion a year earlier.
In line with the shortage in current account balance and trade deficit, foreign direct investment inflow into Bangladesh for the July-March period of FY2017-18 has dropped by 6.02%. The country received FDI amounting to $2.25 billion in the nine months, compared to $2.39 billion a year ago.
