Balance of payments deficit crosses $2b mark

Bangladesh’s balance of payment or BoP deficit has crossed the $2 billion mark. This is the biggest deficit Bangladesh ever had – experts say this is because of the country’s widening trade deficit. "But this should not worry us much," said economist Zaid Bakht. "If we import more than we export, the trade deficit widens and it impacts on balance of payments. This has always been the case with us but this time it is somewhat more," Bakht said. "It may have become a problem but now our foreign exchange reserves have crossed $25 billion. So we can easily meet the cost of imports," Bakht said. Bakht said more imports would bring in more investments. Bangladesh Bank has released statistics on trade and payments for July 2014 to May 2015 on Wednesday. That shows the balance of payments deficit, mainly caused by imports of goods and services, has crossed the $ 2 billion mark. In FY 2013-2014, it stood at $ 1.36 billion, according to bdnews24.com.