Imports grow by 14.49pc last fiscal

FE Team | Published: July 27, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The country's overall imports grew by 14.49 per cent with consumers' goods marking the highest growth at 38.86 per cent in the immediate past fiscal over those of the previous fiscal.
Letters of credit (LCs) against imports worth US$ 15.971 billion were settled in fiscal 2006-07 compared with $13.949 billion in the previous fiscal.
"The import growth was reasonable for a developing country like Bangladesh," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Thursday.
However, if imports of capital machinery and industrial raw materials would have increased the benefits could be greater for the country, he added.
"Had there been similar growth in imports of capital machinery and industrial raw materials like that of the consumers' goods, it would have been better for the economy in the long term," the official noted.
The import of capital machinery reached $1.544 billion in fiscal 2006-07 against $1.347 billion of the previous fiscal, according to the BB's statistics.
In the last fiscal, import of intermediate goods grew by 14.96 per cent. It was 12.01 per cent for industrial raw materials, the data showed.
Intermediate goods worth $1.366 billion were imported in fiscal 2006-07 compared to $1.188 billion of the previous fiscal while the import of industrial raw material was recorded at $5.948 billion in the last fiscal as against $5.310 billion of the fiscal 2005-06.
However, the import of petroleum products was recorded at $2.033 billion in the last fiscal compared to $1.928 billion of the previous fiscal.
On the other hand, the import of foodgrains and other consumer goods increased by 35.84 per cent and 38.86 per cent respectively over the previous fiscal.
The import of foodgrains was worth $581.76 million in the last fiscal against $428.27 million of the previous year while that of consumer items reached $835.61 million compared to $601.75 million in the previous year.