The Bangladesh Bank (BB) data showed on Tuesday that the country's import payment was 38.13 billion dollars, down 2.15 percent, in the July-December period of the current fiscal year while earnings from exports stood at 25.83 billion dollars, up 11.04 percent, during the same period.
The BB data showed the gap between Bangladesh's export earnings and import payments in the July-December period of the previous 2021-22 fiscal year (July 2021-June 2022) was 15.71 billion dollars.
A central bank official who did not give his name said that growth in remittances as always helped Bangladesh cushion the impact of the trade deficit.
Bangladesh's overall remittance inflow rose by 2.44 percent year on year to 10.49 billion dollars in the first half of the 2022-23 fiscal year.
Bangladesh's trade deficit ballooned to a record level of over 33 billion dollars in fiscal 2021-22 ending on June 30, 2022 on the back of increased imports.
In its bid to boost the country's shrinking forex reserves which fell below 33 billion U.S. dollars at the end of the last month, the Bangladesh Bank has taken various measures in recent months to discourage imports.
The bank has recently raised the interest rate on loans in foreign currency from the Export Development Fund by 50 basis points to 4.5 percent with a view to reducing forex reserve expenditure, according to central bank sources.
In addition, the bank in September last year also paved the way for commercial banks in the country to maintain correspondent accounts in the Yuan, the Chinese currency, to facilitate cross-border trade based on the Chinese currency.
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