The country's overall imports grew by more than 14 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY), 2013-14, thanks to a 140.21 per cent rise in import of food grains, officials said.
"The overall imports increased during the period under review mainly due to higher import of food grains along with consumer goods, capital machinery and industrial raw materials," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Tuesday.
The actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) increased by 14.12 per cent to US$ 27.37 billion during the July-March period of FY '14, from $23.99 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
On the other hand, opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, rose by 11.46 per cent to $29.69 billion in the first nine months of FY '14 from $26.64 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
"The rising trend of imports may continue in the coming months, as political situation has improved," the central banker noted.
The actual import of food grains, particularly rice and wheat, rose to $1.07 billion during the July-March period of FY '14 from $443.84 million in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.
The BB official also said the import of consumer goods, including food items, may increase until the next month ahead of the holy Ramadan.
Generally, a large quantity of essential commodities is imported to meet the additional demand of consumers during Ramadan, the month of fasting.
"The businessmen are interested to open more LCs for importing rice, taking advantage of its lower price in the global market," another BB official said, while replying to a query relating to higher import of rice in the recent months.
He also said the prices of rice are now hovering between $390 and $400 per tonne in the international market. It was $458 per tonne in FY '13, and more than $500 in FY '12.
"The rice import may decline in the coming months due to seasonal impact," he explained.
The import of capital machinery has increased by 19.69 per cent to $1.81 billion in the first nine months of FY '14, from $1.52 billion in the corresponding period of FY '13.
Industrial raw material import rose by 10.69 per cent to $10.86 billion during the July-March period of FY '14, from $9.81 billion in the same period of FY '13.
Import of intermediate goods, like - coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels, increased by 0.02 per cent to $2.17 billion during July-March of FY '14, from $2.17 billion in the corresponding period.
However, import of petroleum products rose to $3.23 billion in the first nine months of FY '14, from $3.23 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
The central banker also said import orders for the petroleum products have already increased to meet the growing demand for gasoline across the country.
"The import of fuel oils may increase in the coming months because of seasonal impact."
During the period, the import of machinery for miscellaneous industries reached $2.53 billion, marking a 19.75 per cent growth over $2.11 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
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