A headlong fall of food imports pulled down country's overall import indices in the first month of this fiscal.
By official count, the overall imports dropped 8.48 per cent with food-grains accounting for a sharp fall by 43.37 per cent in July.
"The overall imports dropped during the period under review due to the announcement of national budget and the Eid-ul-Fitr festival," a senior official of Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Monday.
A major indicator for this import fall is low LC settlement.
The settlement of letters of credit (LCs)--generally known as actual imports--came down to US$ 2.96 billion in July, the first month of the financial year 2014-15, from $3.24 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.
LC opening, generally known as import orders, fell 1.67 per cent to $3.65 billion in July. The figure was $3.72 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
The central banker holds the view that businessmen normally maintain a 'go-slow' policy in the month of July after the announcement of budget.
"A large quantity of essential items was imported in the preceding months of May and June to meet the growing demand for the items during the holy Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr festival," the BB official said in explaining the other factor for the July slump.
The import of food-grains dropped significantly in July 2014 due mainly to the seasonal effect, he further said.
Food-grain import came down to $80.93 million in the first month of FY 15 from $142.90 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Imports of other consumer goods decreased 14.60 per cent to $344.53 million from $403.45 million.
In FY14, the food-grain imports shot up by more than 112 per cent to $1.41 billion from $664.29 million in the previous fiscal year.
"Downtrend in the overall import normally continues in the first two months of any FY," the central banker observed. He also said the overall import activity may pick up slightly in the month of September.
Petroleum imports increased 15.05 per cent to $440 million in July last from $382.44 million of the previous July, the BB data showed.
However, the import of industrial raw materials dropped by 11.42 per cent to $1.16 billion against $1.30 billion of previous period while the import of industrial spares and accessories was worth $305.82 million compared to $288.85million.
The import of capital machinery -- industrial equipment used for production -- was down 12.58 per cent to $208.80 million during the period. The previous corresponding figure was $238.85 million.
On the other hand, the import of intermediate goods like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels dropped nearly 23 per cent to $211.93 million this past July from $274.30 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
