Imports witness 16pc growth in July

A whopping 274 per cent rise in fuel oil import enhanced country's overall imports growth by nearly 16 per cent or US$ 640.40 million in July, officials said.

The settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual import, in terms of value, rose to $4.69 billion in July, the first month of the FY 2018-19 from $ 4.05 billion in the same period of the FY 18, according to the central bank's latest statistics.

"The overall imports increased significantly during the period under review due to higher imports of petroleum products," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE on Monday.

Import of petroleum products soared by 274.27 per cent to $492.96 million in July of the FY 19 from $131.71 million in the same period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.

"The upward trend of petroleum products import may continue in the coming months to meet the extra demand for the items for oil-based power plants," the central banker explained.

He also said the use of fuel oil has increased gradually as the number of oil-fired power plants raised in recent months to meet the growing demand for the petroleum products.

Meanwhile, the government allows installation of 10 oil-fired power plants under 'fast-track' programme to generate 1,768 megawatt (MW) electricity.

On the other hand, import of capital machinery-industrial equipment used for production -was down by 16.36 per cent to $408.68 million during the period under review as against $488.65 million a year ago.

Talking to the FE, an executive of a leading private commercial bank (PCB) said possible political uncertainty centering the next general election may push down fresh import of capital machinery.

"Most of the entrepreneurs normally follow a 'wait-and-see' policy for setting up new industry ahead of the national election for avoiding financial risk," the private banker explained.

However, import of intermediate goods like coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels increased by nearly 21 per cent to $361.41 million in the first month of this fiscal from $299.08 million in the same period of the FY 18.

Import of industrial raw materials grew by nearly 11 per cent to $1.67 billion during the period under review from $1.51 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.

During the period, import of machinery for miscellaneous industries witnessed a 14.29 per cent growth to $499.23 million from $436.82 million in the same period of the FY 18.

Food grain imports, particularly of rice and wheat, increased by 21.50 per cent to $156.37 million in July from $128.71 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Import of consumer goods fell by 2.54 per cent to $515.48 million in the first month of FY 19 from $528.93 million in the same period of the FY 18.

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