Trade gap stands at $14.65b in July-May

Country’s merchandise trade deficit with the rest of the world stood at US$14.65 billion during the first 11 months of the past fiscal year (FY19).

Central bank statistics, released this week, showed that merchandise trade gap declined by around 15 per cent during the period under review.

It was $17.15 billion in July-May period of the previous fiscal year (FY18).

Double digit growth in export earnings and single digit growth is import payments contributed in reducing the trade gap significantly.

Export earnings in July-May registered 11.45 per cent growth against 2.62 per cent increase in import, according to the balance of payments (BoP) table of Bangladesh Bank.

Annul export in FY19, however, registered 10.55 per cent growth over FY18, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data released on Monday.

Deficit in service trade, however, increased marginally in the first 11 months of the past fiscal year.

The deficit stood at $3.23 billion in July-May period of FY19 which was $3.16 billion in the same period of FY18.

Earnings from service export registered 51.20 per cent growth in July-May period of the past fiscal year while payments for service import posted 30.21 per cent growth during the period under review.