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The country’s merchandise trade deficit with the rest of the world declined significantly in the last fiscal year (FY23), according to the latest statistics released by the central bank on Thursday afternoon.
It showed that the trade deficit in FY23 declined to US$17.15 billion from $33.25 billion in FY22, recording a 48.40 per cent drop annually.
The big decline in imports against the modest growth in exports contributed to reduce the trade deficit significantly.
The provisional estimate of the annual balance of payments (BoP), prepared by Bangladesh Bank, also showed that the deficit in trade in services increased slightly in the last fiscal year.
The gap in trade in services stood at $4.25 billion in the last fiscal year, a 6.50 per cent increase from $3.99 billion in FY22.
The big decline in the trade deficit led to a bigger decline in the current account deficit in the year under review.
The central bank statistics showed that the annual current account deficit came down to $3.33 billion in FY23 which was $18.64 billion in the previous fiscal year.
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