Bangladesh has been able to maintain a huge surplus in foreign transactions due to drop in food import bill and contribution of increasing foreign aids and record remittances to foreign exchange earnings. The trade deficit has also come down.
Latest Bangladesh Bank (BB) data show the country registered over $2.52 billion surplus in the current account for foreign transactions in the 2012-13 fiscal.
Trade deficit in 2012-13 fiscal was $7.01 billion while it was $9.32 billion in the year before.
It means the overall deficit in commodity trading has been cut down by 25 percent over the last year.
Analysis shows Bangladesh had always experienced trade deficit as the import bill was always higher than the export.
The deficit stood at $2.87 billion in 2005-06 fiscal. In the next fiscal it raised to $3.85 billion.
After the global recession, it was $5.33 billion at the end of 2007-08 fiscal.
But since then it has been showing a downward trend.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman told bdnews24.com the trade deficit could be brought down in the last fiscal thanks to record bumper harvests in successive years.
“Besides that the country has able to maintain a huge surplus in the balance of payment in the current accounts for foreign transactions. It has boosted the economy,” he said.
Source: Bd news24
