Overall import orders almost doubled in the first five months of this fiscal year as opening letters of credit (LC) for bulk purchase for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) gave a spurt.
By official count, the opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, rose by 91.25 per cent or US$17.06 billion to $35.75 billion during the July-November period of the FY 2017-18 from $18.69 billion in the corresponding period of FY 17.
On the other hand, the actual import in terms of settlement of LCs grew by 8.25 per cent or $1.57 billion to $20.59 billion in the five months from $19.02 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) opened LCs worth $ 11.38 billion through the state-owned Sonali Bank Limited to import different items, including capital machinery, to build the power plant, according to officials.
"The LC has been opened under 'others' head that also contributed to push up the overall import orders during the period under review," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
The LC will be settled under buyers' credit. So it will not put any extra pressure on the local market as well as on the country's foreign exchange reserve immediately, the central banker explained.
He also said the import orders stood at $ 24.37 billion in the five months of the FY 18 after deducting the figure of Rooppur NPP LC.
"Actually, the overall import orders increased despite the deducting of the figure of Rooppur NPP LC mainly due to higher import orders for capital machinery particularly for setting up new power plants," the BB official added.
He also said the actual imports increased during the period under review due to higher import of consumer goods including food-grains.
The import of consumer goods rose by 64.21 per cent to $3.23 billion in the five months of FY 18 from $1.96 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
On the other hand, foodgrain imports, particularly of rice and wheat, also increased sharply by 158.55 per cent to $1.23 billion during the period under review from $477.74 million in the same period of the FY 17.
The official figures also show that actual import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for production dropped by 15.15 per cent to $2.12 billion during the period under review against $2.50 billion of the same period of FY 17.
However, import orders for capital machinery jumped by nearly 39 per cent to $2.63 billion in the five months of FY 18 from $1.89 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
The import of petroleum products rose by 10.50 per cent to $1.12 billion during the period under review from $1.01 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Industrial raw material import increased by nearly 8.0 per cent to $7.26 billion in the five months of FY18 from $6.73 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
However, import of intermediate goods, like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels, increased by 12.45 per cent to $1.58 billion in the five months of the FY 18 from $1.41 billion in the same period of the FY 17.
During the period, the import of machinery for miscellaneous industries witnessed a 2.82 percent growth to $2.06 billion from $2.00 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
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