Trade deficit drops slightly in July-Jan period

Country’s merchandise trade deficit with the rest of the world declined slightly in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compare to the same period of the past fiscal year.

Central bank statistics, released this afternoon, showed that trade deficit stood at $9.68 billion in July-January period of FY19 which was $10.07 billion in the same period of FY18.

Thus, trade gap declined by 3.88 per cent in the first seven months of the current fiscal.

Bangladesh Bank data also showed that deficit in service trade dropped to $1.95 billion during the period under review which was $2.07 billion in the first seven months of FY18.

Decline in trade gap contributed to a descent in current account deficit to $4.33 billion from $5.40 billion, according to the central bank estimation.