The country saw a trade deficit of $14.08 billion in the last fiscal year 2014-15 because of higher import growth against the sluggish exports. Chief Economist of Bangladesh Bank Biru Paksha Paul last month hinted that trade deficit will widen more in the current fiscal 2015-16 as import of raw materials and capital machinery may rise thanks to the improved political situation. In the last FY15, import grew by 11.26 percent to $45190 million while overall exports soared by only 3.35 percent to $31198 million compared to the previous FY, BB statistics show. “Rise in trade deficit is not a matter of concern as it is manageable,” Paksha Paul told reporters after attending the half-yearly monetary policy announcement programme. “We have a strong $25 billion reserve of foreign currencies and it will increase slightly due to expected higher exports and rise in remittance inflow,” he observed. Bangladesh mainly imports industrial raw materials, intermediary goods, capital machinery and machinery for miscellaneous industries. The country’s domestic demand for consumer goods, both food and non-food items, is rising as income of people is gradually improving.The government is trying to reduce extreme poverty to zero by 2018 and it has already taken initiatives to facilitate small entrepreneurship and sending of more workers abroad. A central bank data shows that in the last fiscal, industry-related import spending was 64.93 percent of the country’s total import costs. It suggests spending on import of industrial raw materials was 37.19 percent followed by capital machinery 9.80 percent, machinery for miscellaneous industry 9.32 percent and intermediate goods 8.62 percent. The BB chief economist said that developing country like Bangladesh always face huge trade deficit and it is not that bad. “We can cover it up by expanding domestic production as well as exports; once large infrastructure schemes end,” he said.
