Bangladesh H1 trade deficit rises 28% to $ 3.9 b

DHAKA (Reuters): Bangladesh’s trade deficit rose about 28 percent to nearly $3.9 billion during the July-December first half of the fiscal year, boosted by higher fuel imports, a central bank official said on Tuesday.

The trade deficit was about $3.05 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year. Bangladesh earned $13.9 billion from July to December by exporting goods overseas while spending $17.8 billion on imports, the official said.

Fuel imports increased 68 percent to $2.42 billion in the fiscal first half, boosted both by rising prices and higher volumes.

The trade deficit may ease slightly in the rest of the fiscal year due to declining imports of grains, with a bumper rice harvest expected, and of luxury goods, said Mohammad Ibrahim Khaled, an economist and former deputy governor of the central bank. The central bank has adopted measures to discourage luxury imports to ease pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

Khaled said the authorities should move to discourage imports and encourage exports to rein in the trade deficit.“It is essential to narrow the trade gap to have a healthy economy,” he said.