Overall trend of opening LCs rises marginally

FE Report brThe overall trend of opening of fresh letters of credit (LCs) for imports increased marginally by 3.67 per cent during the first three weeks of August against the corresponding period of the previous year, officials said. brWe expect more LCs to be opened for importing essential items to meet the growing demand in the local market during upcoming Ramadan, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Sunday. brHe also said the importers may adopt a 'go-slow' strategy as prices of the most essential items in the global market are on the declining trend. brThe import LCs worth US$ 1.369 billion were opened during the period under review against $1.321 billion of the same period of last year, according to the central bank statistics, released Sunday. brDuring the period, the opening of LCs for import of essential items including rice, wheat, sugar, milk food, edible oil, pulses and onion registered a fall, they added. brThe opening of LCs for rice dropped by $68.86 million to $0.26 million in terms of value, for sugar by $4.08 million to $ 12.66 million, for milk food by $5.33 million to $ 4.76 million, for pulses by $28.30 million to $ 1.08 million, for onion by $1.0 million to $9.71 million while edible oil by $64.13 million to $ 26.01 million during the period.