July-Aug import up 8.0pc

Siddique Islam | Published: October 19, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Overall import by the country grew by 8.0 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal year (FY) on the back of a 30.53 per cent increase in capital-machinery purchase, officials said.
The actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) rose to $6.94 billion during the July-August period of FY 2015-16 from $6.43 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the latest data compiled by the Foreign Exchange Operation Department (FEOD) of Bangladesh Bank (BB).
On the other hand, the opening of LCs, generally known as import orders, decreased 6.83 per cent to $6.64 billion in the first two months from $7.13 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
However, the overall import with cost and freight (C&F) dropped 2.98 per cent to $6.56 billion during the period under review from $6.76 billion in the same period a year ago, according to the official figures, prepared by the Statistics Department of the BB.
"We're preparing the import statement on the basis of data provided by all the scheduled banks," a senior official of the FEOP told the FE.
The FEOP official said the overall import-settlement figures included the amount of deferred LCs and C&Â Â Â
"Difference of the overall import-payment figures is mainly due to lack of reconciliation among various reportings of the banks," he explained. Â
Talking to the FE, another BB official said the overall imports increased during the period mainly due to higher import of capital machinery and machinery for miscellaneous industries.
"We expect that the import may rise in the coming months if the implementation of different development projects, particularly the infrastructural ones, is expedited by the government," he noted.
Import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for production rose to $622.14 million in the first two months of this fiscal year against $476.64 million of the corresponding period of FY15.
The BB official also said higher import for textile, pharmaceutical, garment and energy and power sectors contributed to rise in the overall capital-machinery imports. During the period, the import of machinery for miscellaneous industries witnessed a 37.22 per cent growth to $901.54 million from $657.01 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Import of intermediate goods, like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels, increased 5.16 per cent to $512.92 million in the first two months of the FY16 from $487.75 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Industrial raw material import rose to $2.48 billion during the period under review from $2.46 billion in the same period of the FY15.
However, the import of petroleum products sharply dropped by 47.77 per cent to $438.91 million during the July-August period of FY16 from $480.40 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
The import of consumer goods decreased by 17.15 per cent to $638.82 million during the period under review from $771.08 million in the same period of the FY15, the BB data showed.
siddique.islam@gmail.com