The country's overall import growth witnessed a slightly downward trend in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY) due to falling trend of prices of commodities including fuel oil in the global market, officials said.
The import growth rate came down to 4.98 per cent during the July-March period of FY2016 from 5.17 per cent in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the latest central bank statistics.
"The overall imports marked a decreasing trend during the period under review mainly due to lower prices of commodities including petroleum products in the international market," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Monday.
The actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) rose to US$30.22 billion in the first nine months of FY 16 from $28.79 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
On the other hand, opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, dropped by 2.29 per cent to $31.56 billion during the period under review from $32.31 billion in the same period of the FY2015.
The central banker also said the import growth decreased in terms of value, not quantity, during the period under review following lower prices of commodities in the market. "The country's overall imports are still at a satisfactory level."
The existing trend of overall imports may continue until June if the downward prices of essential commodities including petroleum products in the global market persist, the BB official hinted.
The import of petroleum products dropped by 28.92 per cent to $1.93 billion during the period under review from $2.71 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal due to lower prices of fuel oils in the international market.
The import of consumer goods came down to $3.51 billion in the nine months of FY 16 from $3.68 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
On the other hand, food-grain imports, particularly of rice and wheat, also dropped by 22.93 per cent to $870.98 million during the period from $1.13 billion in the same period of the FY 15.
The import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for productions rose by 12.55 per cent to $2.51 billion during the nine months of this fiscal against $2.23 billion of the same period of the previous fiscal.
Talking to the FE, another BB official said higher import for sectors including textile, garment, pharmaceutical and telecom have contributed to rise in the overall capital machinery import during the period under review.
The import of intermediate goods, like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels, increased by 6.24 per cent to $2.50 billion during the period under review from $2.36 billion in the same period of the FY 15.
On the other hand, import of industrial raw materials rose by 3.47 per cent to $11.85 billion in the nine months of the FY 16 from $11.45 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
During the period, import of machinery for miscellaneous industries witnessed a 12.90 per cent growth to $3.17 billion from $2.81 billion in the same period of the FY 15.
siddique.islam@gmail.com
Import growth registers slight downward trend
Siddique Islam | Published: May 24, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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