Bangladesh's trade deficit widened 49 percent to $7.69 billion in the 2010-11 fiscal year that ended in June from $5.15 billion the year before due to soaring fuel and food import costs, the central bank said on Wednesday. The central bank said it expected the trade deficit to keep widening out to $8.84 billion in the year to next June.
Bills for imports - notably fuel, food and power generation equipment - soared, offsetting strong exports led by clothing, while remittances grew more slowly, a senior central bank official said. It expects import bills to climb to $35.17 billion in 2011-12 from $30.58 billion in 2010-11. The current account surplus in 2010/11 slid to $564 million from $3.7 billion the previous year, while the balance of payments swung into a deficit of $38 million from a surplus of $2.86 billion last year.
The South Asian country routinely runs a trade deficit, but high global commodity prices and increased volumes are widening the gap. Exports hit a record $22.9 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, while remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas rose 6 percent to $11.6 billion. The garments sector, which employs 3.5 million workers, is one of the main foreign exchange earners for Bangladesh's more than $100 billion economy, along with remittances, which have recently grown more slowly mainly due to the turmoil in the Middle East and north Africa.
Comments
Comments are closed.