Published at: The Financial Express, March 12, 2019
The country’s overall balance of payments (BOP) registered a $975-million deficit during the July-January period of fiscal year (FY) 2018-19.
The amount is $59 million less than the $1,034-million deficit in the July-January period of FY 2017-18, according to the central bank data.
The rise in the country’s secondary income and a decline in the volume of trade deficit helped keep the country’s overall deficit in the balance of payments at a lower level during the period.
The country’s trade deficit fell to $9,684 million during the first seven months of FY ’19, compared to $10,077 million in the same period of the last fiscal.
Higher growth in the merchandise exports than that of imports helped narrow down the country’s overall trade deficit during the July-January period of FY ’19.
The country’s aggregate exports grew by 12.81 per cent to $23.80 billion during the July-January period of FY ’19, compared to nearly $21.10 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal.
On the other hand, the country’s overall imports posted a 7.41 per cent growth to reach $ 33.48 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal as against $ 31.17 billion in the same period of the last fiscal, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data.
The country’s secondary income also increased to $9362 million from $8526 million, according to the BB figures.
However, the volume of financial account surplus fell to $3522 million during July-January period of this fiscal from $4282 million in the same period of last fiscal.
Besides, the amount of capital account surplus declined slightly to $156 million during the first seven months of this fiscal, compared to $163 million in the same period of last fiscal.
The country’ service trade gap also fell to $1944-million deficit during the said period of FY ’19 from $2017-million in the same period of last fiscal.
