Falling trend of the country’s overall imports continued in May due to lower prices of essential commodities including fuel oil in the global market, officials said on Thursday. Opening of letters of credit (LCs) against imports, generally known as import orders, decreased by 9.56 per cent to US$ 3.47 billion in May 2015 from $ 3.84 billion in the same month of the previous calendar year. On the other hand, the settlement of LCs, generally known as actual imports, dropped by 6.29 per cent to $ 3.05 billion during the period under review from $ 3.26 billion in the corresponding period in the previous year. “The imports, in value terms, maintained a declining trend during the period under review mainly due to lower prices of petroleum products on the global market,” a senior official of Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE. But the import increased in May last over the previous month of this calendar year, the central banker explained. The actual import of fuel oils dropped by 46.57 per cent to $ 250.47 million in May last from $ 468.78 million in the same month of the last calendar year, the BB data showed. The BB official also said import of different essential items, including scrap vessels and capital machinery decreased during the period under review. However, actual import of back-to-back import for readymade garment (RMG) products increased in May last compared to the same month of the previous year, he added. “Overall imports normally decrease in the months of April and May before the national budget,” the central banker observed.
