Bangladesh’s trade deficit in 11 months of immediate-past financial year (FY) stands at $ 9.464 billion, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB). The country has spent $ 37227 billion for imports against income from overall exports worth $ 27763 billion during July 2014- May 2015 period, the central bank’s provisional data shows. Meanwhile, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has revealed export income for the month of June but import spending for the month yet to be available from the agencies concerned, including the central bank, due to delay in maintaining procedures. The EPB data shows the country fetched $ 3.054 billion in June, the last month of 2014-15 financial year (FY), with the export earnings totaling $ 31198.45 billion. According to BB estimation, the country may need $ 4.0 billion in the same month for imports, adding up to a total of $ 41227 billion in annual import spending at fiscal-end. Thus, the BB estimation suggests the overall trade deficit at end of FY 15 may stand at around $ 10.0 billion. In the previous FY (14), the trade deficit was $ 7.0 billion. The figure was $ 7.01 billion in FY 13 and $ 9.32 billion in FY 12. Traditionally, Bangladesh’s economy is import-leading as the country’s domestic demand for various commodities and industrial inputs from bigger population and expanding industries is rising year-on-year. The country’s export basket mainly led by apparel industry while small income coming from export of agricultural products, frozen fishes, jute and jute goods, leather and leather goods and light engineering items. Bangladesh targets higher exports in the years to come which will need more spending on imports. The central bank claims that the foreign currency reserves of the country remains at comfort zone and the trade deficit won’t harm financial stability in the external sector. As of 12th July, the foreign exchange reserves stands at $ 25.0 billion which is enough to meet seven month’s import spending, the central bank says.
