Bangladesh's import volume fell in October as apparel exporters had earlier made contingency stockpile of textiles in line with buyers' orders to avert global price volatility and cut down purchase.
Settlement of letters of credit (LC), generally known as actual import, in terms of value, fell by 5.26 per cent to $5.27 billion in October 2021 from $5.56 billion in the previous month, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
The LC valuations were worth $5.17 billion in August.
On the other hand, the opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, dropped by more than 15 per cent to $5.63 billion in the past month from $6.63 billion a month ago. It was $6.29 billion in August 2021.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials as well as the market operators predicted that the downturn in imports may continue in the coming months while upward trend in export earnings is expected to carry on until December this calendar year.
"Our overall imports may fall gradually in the near future. And it will come back to pre-pandemic level," a BB senior official told the FE Sunday.
Overall import in September was a temporary phenomenon just after curbing the coronavirus infections in Bangladesh, the central banker explained.
A senior executive of a leading private commercial bank (PCB), however, predicts country's overall import payment-obligations may not fall significantly in the months ahead if the rising trend in petroleum products along with other commodities' prices on the global market continues.
Imports under back-to-back LC settlement of textiles products dropped by more than 15 per cent to $622.64 million in the month of October from $735.74 million in September 2021, the BB data showed.
Talking to the FE, Sayeed Ahmad Chowdhury, director, operations, of Square Denims, said a section of apparel manufactures had already booked their raw materials until December to avert price volatility of various products related to readymade garments on the international market.
"We expect that the existing upward trend in export earnings will continue until December despite falling trend in the textiles products," Mr Chowdhury explained.
The export earnings increased 60.37 per cent year on year to $4.73 billion in October--the highest ever for a single month in the history of Bangladesh--as apparel shipments rebounded from pandemic recession.
Meanwhile, actual imports for petroleum products jumped by nearly 87 per cent to $359.93 million in October from $192.63 million in September 2021, according to the central bank data.
The demand for fuel oils has been on the increase in recent months as economies have started reopening gradually around the world, the market operators added.
"Import expense for petroleum products has increased significantly during the period under review following the rising trend in both price and quantity," a senior official of the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) told the FE while explaining the latest fuel-oil situation of the country.
He also said the import-payment obligation for fuel oil is likely to increase further in the coming months mainly due to seasonal impact.
Import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for production was up by over 11 per cent to $346.40 million in October as against $310.88 million a month before.
Higher capital-machinery imports were needed for apparel and clothing, pharmaceutical industries along with implementation of different infrastructure-development projects, including Dhaka Metro Rail, according to another BB official.
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