Import spending rises by $4.0b in 10 months

Country's overall import expenditure increased by nearly 12 per cent or around US$ 4.0 billion in the first 10 months of this fiscal year (FY).
According to official data, higher import of capital machinery mainly pushed up the import spending.
Actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) rose to $37.37 billion during the July-April period in the FY 2016-17 from $33.37 billion during the same period in the previous fiscal.
On the other hand, the opening of LCs, usually known as import orders, rose by 13.83 per cent to $ 39.97 billion during the period under review from $ 35.11 billion during the corresponding period, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
"The overall imports increased during the period under review mainly due to higher imports of capital machinery and intermediate goods," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Wednesday.
The ongoing Holy Ramadan and the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival have also contributed to rise in the overall imports, according to the central banker.
A large quantity of essential commodities is normally imported to meet the additional demand of consumers during Ramadan, the month of fasting and religious festivals.   
"The import may fall slightly during the May-June period due to the fiscal year ending," the BB official hinted.
However, the import of capital machinery jumped more than 48 per cent during the period, contributing to the substantial rise in overall imports, another BB official said.
The import of capital machinery or industrial equipment used for production rose to $4.20 billion in the July-April period of this FY against $ 2.83 billion of the same period of FY'16.
He further said higher import particularly for the energy and power sectors mainly contributed to rise in overall capital-machinery imports.
During the period, the import of capital machinery for power and energy sectors made a quantum leap of over 193 per cent to $ 1.25 billion from $425.80 million in the same period of the FY'16.
The capital-machinery imports for other sectors like apparel and clothing, pharmaceuticals and shipbuilding also increased substantially during the period, according to the BB official.
Meanwhile, the import of intermediate goods like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels increased by 14.92 per cent to $3.16 billion in the first 10 months of this FY from $ 2.75 billion during the same period of the FY'16.
Import of industrial raw materials grew by 3.52 per cent to $13.60 billion during the period from $ 13.13 billion during the same period of the FY'16.
The import of machinery for miscellaneous industries witnessed an 8.36 per cent growth to $3.85 billion from $ 3.55 billion of the same period of the previous FY.
However, import of petroleum products rose by1.49 per cent to $2.12 billion during the July-April period of FY' 17 from $ 2.09 billion in the same period of the previous FY.
On the other hand, import of consumer goods increased by 9.86 per cent to $ 4.21 billion in the first 10 months of this fiscal from $3.83 billion during the same period of the FY'16, the BB data showed.
Food-grain imports, particularly of rice and wheat, increased by 2.56 per cent to $ 976.87 million during the period of the FY'17 from $ 952.52 million during the same period of the previous fiscal.
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