The country’s overall imports increased by 13.60 per cent in February of this year against a negative growth of 12.84 per cent in the corresponding month of the last year due mainly to higher import of food products. According to Bangladesh Bank data, the overall settlement of letters of credit, generally known as actual import, stood at $2.85 billion in February of this year. The figure was $2.50 billion in February 2013 and $2.87 billion in January 2012.
A BB official told New Age on Tuesday 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 February.
The BB data showed that the import of rice, wheat, sugar, milk food, edible oil (refined), and dry fruits were worth $43.53 million, $84.28 million, $88.65 million, $18.33 million, 52.06 million, and $3.20 million respectively in February from those of $1.57 million, $42.61 million, $49.14 million, $15.75 million, $37.42 million, and $2.76 million in February last year.
Moreover, the import of garment industry-related products also increased in the last month.
The import of back-to-back products (fabrics, accessories and other materials) for garment sector, petroleum products, raw cotton, and synthetic and mixed yarn increased to $489.07 million, $277.12 million, $198.38 million and $26.06 million respectively in February from those of $482.87 million, $242.22 million, $133.58 million and $17.22 million in February last year.
The import of capital machinery in February also increased to $182.19 million from $124.56 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 which had already raised 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 unrest, he said.
The BB data showed that opening of LCs against imports, generally known as import orders, increased by 20.72 per cent in February compared with that of 7.18 per cent negative growth in the corresponding month of 2012.
In February last year, LCs worth $3.36 billion were opened by the banks. LCs worth $2.78 billion were opened in February 2013 and $3.00 billion in February 2012.
-With New Age input
