The country’s overall imports increased by 30.61 per cent in March of this year against a negative growth of 5.38 per cent in the corresponding month of the last year due mainly to higher import of food, petroleum and chemical products. According to Bangladesh Bank data released on Wednesday, the overall settlement of letters of credit, generally known as actual import, stood at $3.44 billion in March of this year. The figure was $2.63 billion in March 2013 and $2.78 billion in March 2012.
A BB official told New Age on Wednesday that the importers were now importing more products than the previous few months as the businesspeople got a respite in the period from the situation of political unrest.
Besides, the price of food products in the global market is now maintaining a decreasing trend which put an impact on the country’s overall import payment in March.
The BB data showed that the import of rice, wheat, milk food, dry fruits and pulses were worth $54.19 million, $76.76 million, $17.10
million, $4.06 million and $26.64 million respectively in March from those of $2.79 million, $32.96 million, $2.43 million and $25.92 million in March last year.
The import of chemical products and petroleum increased to $220.12 million and $607.85 million in March from those of $162.15 million and $378.81 million in March last year.
The import of capital machinery in March also increased to $155.02 million from $117.68 million in the corresponding month of 2013.
The BB official said that the businesspeople had been importing huge amount of capital machinery for the last few months, raising suspicion that money laundering might have occurred in the process.
The import of capital machinery had declined sharply in the FY13 but it increased in the recent months of this financial year despite having unfriendly business environment in the country amid political stalemate, he said.
The BB data showed that opening of LCs against imports, generally known as import orders, increased by 10.37 per cent in March compared with that of 16.70 per cent growth in the corresponding month of 2013.
In March, LCs worth $3.62 billion were opened by the banks. LCs worth $3.28 billion were opened in March 2013 and $2.81 billion in March 2012.
-With New Age input
