Dhaka, 8 Feb. (IANS) According to figures from the central bank, Bangladesh's trade deficit decreased by 21.71% to $12.30 billion over the course of the first half of the current fiscal year (2022–2023).
According to
Export Import Data, the country's import payments were $38.13 billion, down 2.15 percent, from July through December of the current fiscal year, while export revenues were $25.83 billion, up 11.04 percent, according to the Xinhua news agency.
According to BB data, the difference between Bangladesh's export receipts and import obligations during the July–December 2021–2022 fiscal year (July 2021–June 2022) was $15.71 billion.
An unnamed central bank official claimed that Bangladesh always benefited from increased remittances in reducing the effects of the trade deficit.
In the first half of the 2022–23 fiscal year, Bangladesh's total remittance inflow increased by 2.44 percent year over year to $10.49 billion.
Due to a surge in imports, Bangladesh's trade imbalance grew to a record high of over $33 billion in the fiscal year 2021–2022 that ended on June 30, 2022
The central bank has implemented a number of steps recently to limit imports in an effort to increase the nation's declining foreign exchange reserves, which at the end of the previous month were below $33 billion.
According to central bank sources, the bank recently increased the interest rate on loans in foreign currency from the Export Development Fund by 50 basis points to 4.5 percent in an effort to cut back on the cost of maintaining forex reserves.
