Bangladesh's services account deficit hit a record high in the seven months to January as the payment for freights jumped by nearly 24 per cent on back of rise in the external trade, the central bank said.
Services account is part of the balance of payment (BoP), which includes transportation, travel, computer, and telecommunication and information.
Even the deficit could not be counterbalanced, despite the arrival of increased number of inbound tourists, boosted by the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh.
Services account deficit amounted to US$2.58 billion in July-January 2018, up from $1.99 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank (BB).
Such type of deficit in the service accounts is impacting the overall BoP, which is in the negative territory, more than US$ 1.0 billion.
Economists who follow the situation said that Bangladesh's payment for freights has been climbing on the back of rise in external trade, widening the gap between receipts and payment.
The transport account balance logged a deficit of $3.22 billion against $2.61 billion a year ago.
This is the biggest deficit in terms of dollar-based calculation.
The widening deficit comes against the backdrop slump in business of the global shipping industry.
In contrast, local people's payment for overseas travelling account widened by over 32 per cent to $ 412 million in the period through January.
The payment for health and education-related services accounts also marginally rose by 0.2 percentage point to $ 0.8 million dollars and nearly 13 per cent to $ 113 million respectively.
But the country's total receipt from different services sector was $2.47 billion dollars, with travel accounts climbing by nearly 35 per cent during the period.
For example, the receipt from the travelling services rose by over 27 per cent to $213 million during the period.
Economists say that this travel receipt jumped due to the rise in tourists after the Rohingya issue in Cox's bazaar came to the fore.
Ahsan H Mansur, executive director at Dhaka-based think-tank the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, told the FE that local people are now spending substantial money for education and treatment abroad, which explains why the payment for the services has been rising in recent years.
He also said that the payment for freight charges is the biggest account as the country lacks transportation facility on the international routes.
Bangladesh received just $339 million from transport account in July-January period, around one-tenth of the payment for transport accounts.
Khandker Golam Moazzem, research director at the think-tank the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said Bangladesh was yet to develop its services to earn from it.
"In my view, this gap may be narrowed down by updating the transportation policies." Mr Moazzam said.
He said, "Our health services poor and simply for this reason many have been going abroad for treatment."
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