Balance of payments (BoP) is under strains as country's overall trade deficit widened over 53 per cent by official count in the first 11 months of the just-concluded fiscal year (FY).
The BoP slipped into negative territory as higher import payments far outstripped export receipts, officials said.
The trade deficit rose to $9.46 billion during the July-May period of the FY 2014-15 from $6.18 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
"The trade deficit may cross US$10 billion in FY15 for the first time in the history of Bangladesh," Dr Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI) of Bangladesh, told the FE Tuesday.
He noted that the trade deficit is widening gradually due mainly to lower export earnings while imports are growing at a healthy pace.
The imports grew 12.20 per cent to $37.23 billion during the 11 months against $33.18 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
On the other hand, the country's export earnings grew only 2.83 per cent to $27.76 billion during the last July-May period, against $27.00 billion in the corresponding period, the BB data showed.
"Our exporters are facing difficulties in Euro zone because the Euro has already deprecated by 20 per cent against the Bangladesh Taka (BDT)," said the senior economist, explaining the situation of imbalance in external trade.
Around 60 per cent of the country's export earnings come from the Euro zone in the European Union, facing some worst problems on their financial front-the raging one being the Greek debt crisis.
About the widening of trade deficit, Dr Biru Paksha Paul, chief economist at Bangladesh Bank (BB), said it's very natural for a growing economy like Bangladesh.
He also said trade deficit is not necessarily bad for an emerging country like Bangladesh because the major share of imports represents capital machinery and industrial inputs which provide potential of growth for the future.
Besides the gap in the trade in goods, deficit also increased in trade in services during the period under review.
Gap in services trade stood at $4.29 billion during the period, which was $3.66 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Trade in services includes tourism, financial service and insurance.
The country earned $2.81 billion in services trade during the first 11 months of the fiscal while payments on services surged to $7.10 billion during the period, from $6.52 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
"We should rather focus more on the huge deficit in the service sector that eats up a major share of remittance earnings," the BB chief economist noted.
Dr Paul also stressed the need for improving the quality of services through adopting a long-term strategy that will help the country's overall economic growth prospect and also reduce the current-account deficit.
"We've to ensure the quality of education for reducing dependence on foreign experts or consultants," he observed.
Such higher trade deficit pushed down the current-account balance significantly, despite uptrend in inward remittances, another BB official said.
Bangladesh received $13.74 billion during the July-May period of FY15, registering a 7.03 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The country's current-account balance entered the negative territory last September due to higher landed imports, recorded by the customs department, the BB official added.
However, the current-account deficit rose to $2.0 billion in the July-May period from $1.64 billion a month ago.
It was $1.36 billion surplus during the July-May period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
Dr Mansur also projected that the country's current-account deficit may touch $2.50 billion in FY15.
The overall balance of payments (BoP) came down to $3.59 billion during the period under review, from $4.97 billion in the corresponding period of FY 14.
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