Imports grow over 11pc in 4 months

Siddique Islam | Published: December 01, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The country made higher import of petroleum products and capital machinery in the first four months of the current fiscal year (FY), as the overall imports grew over 11per cent during the period. Â
Officials said the actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LC) increased by 11.10 per cent to US$12.94 billion during the July-October period of the FY 2014-15 from $11.65 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
According to the central bank statistics, released Sunday, the opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, marked a 12.01 per cent rise to $ 13.98 billion.
The total LC worth was $12.48 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
"We expect that the rising trend of overall imports will continue in the coming months if the political stability continues," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
The import of fuel oils shot by 35.04 per cent to $1.55 billion during the period under review from $1.15 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
The central banker also said the import of petroleum products may decrease in the coming months due to seasonal effect.
Import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for production rose by 28.20 per cent to $917.20 million during the July-October period of the FY 15, against $715.43 million of the previous corresponding period.
Talking to the FE, another BB official said higher import for power and energy, textile machinery, electronic industry machinery, steel and engineering industries and food processing contributed to the rise in the overall capital machinery imports during the period under review.
Food-grain imports, particularly of rice and wheat, dropped by 26.02 per cent to $415.36 million during the period of the FY 15 from $561.43 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Import of intermediate goods, like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels, fell by 1.19 per cent to $1.02 billion in the first four months of the current FY from $ 1.03 billion in the same period of the FY 14.
On the other hand, industrial raw material import increased by 4.13 per cent to $ 4.95 billion during the period under review from $4.76 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
During the period, the import of machinery for miscellaneous industries witnessed a 15.12 per cent growth to $1.34 billion from $1.16 million in the corresponding period of the FY 14.
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