The country is expected to see an increase in its ratio of the imports of goods and services to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in current fiscal year 2018.
The ratio may stand at 22.34 per cent as against 20.27 per cent in the past fiscal year 2017, said Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in its provisional estimate.
It put the annual value of the imports of goods and services at Tk 5,001.29 billion for this fiscal year, which is up by 25 per cent from Tk 4004.56 billion in 2017.
According to the latest data of Bangladesh Bank, the country’s payments for the merchandise import reached US$31.17 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year.
The amount is 25.20 per cent growth over the same period of the past fiscal year.
Again, the expenditure for the import of services stood at $5.05 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, which was $4.10 billion in the same period of the past fiscal year.