Imports rebound in March

FE Report | Published: April 27, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The country's imports rebounded in the month of March as political tension gradually eased centring the city corporation polls, officials said.
Opening of letters of credit (LC) against imports, generally known as import orders, jumped by more than 30 per cent to US$ 3.97 billion in March from $3.05 billion in February 2015.
The LC opening figure was $3.62 billion in the same period of the previous calendar year, according to the latest statistics of the central bank.
On the other hand, the settlement of LCs, generally known as actual imports, surged by over 23.16 per cent to $3.34 billion during the period under review from $2.71 billion in the previous month.
The actual imports, in term of value, fell by 3.0 per cent to $3.34 billion in March 2015 from $3.44 billion in the same month of 2014.
"We expect that the overall imports will rise further in the coming months if political stability continues," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Sunday.
Most of the importers are being encouraged to import more following lower prices of commodities including fuel oil in the global market, the central banker explained.
He said import orders of different essential items including raw cotton and petroleum products increased significantly during the period under review to meet domestic requirements of the items.
Import orders for raw cotton rose to $253.48 million in March last from $180.88 million in the previous month while petroleum products' import orders stood at $230.62 million against $172.90 million in February 2015.
However, the import orders for capital machinery came down to $193.33 million in March last from $194.50 million in the previous month of the same calendar year.
The central banker also said back-to-back import orders for readymade garment (RMG) products, including fabrics and accessories, increased last month significantly indicating upward trend of export earnings in the coming months.
During the period, the back-to-back import orders for RMG rose to $652.35 million from $480.89 million in the month of February last.
The country's overall import started a downturn trend in the month of January and continues until February 2015 mainly due to the political turmoil.
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