Trade gap widens to $3.08b in July-Nov

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Shakhawat Hossain
The country's trade gap surged to US$ 3.08 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal, despite sliding international commodity prices, accelerated by global economic downturn, commerce ministry officials said late last week.
The deficit grew by 26.6 per cent in July-November period of 2008-09 over the same period in the financial year 2008, they said. The first five months of the financial year 2008 saw a trade gap of $ 2.40 billion.
Bangladesh Bank officials, however, say the previous payment obligations have pushed trade gap up, even though prices of essential items are showing downward trend in the international market.
"The country is still making payments against earlier imports. That means the country is even meeting the payment obligations of the by-gone fiscal year," a senior central bank official said.
The bulk of the pending payments, officials say, is the bill for oil and fertiliser imports and also payments to the multinational oil and gas companies operating in the country.
Crude oil prices in the international market have begun falling since October this year after peaking at a $147 a barrel in July. Global economic recession risks are seen as the major reason behind a drop in demand for energy.
Like fuel prices, other commodity items continued to spiral till June of the current calendar year before dropping significantly in recent months.
The central bank official pointed out that the impact of falling commodity items in the international market will be seen in the coming months.
The country imported goods and services worth $9.44 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal against marchandise exports totaling $6.3 billion.
While imports stood at $7.56 billion during July-November period of 2007-08 fiscal, exports were $ 5.16 billion during the same period, recording a paltry 2.40 per cent growth, according to commerce ministry officials.
But officials said the country's export growth recorded an impressive 26.87 per cent in the first five months of the current financial year while import growth stood at about 25 per cent during the same period.