The country’s deficit in trade in goods with the rest of the world crossed US$33 billion in the last fiscal year (FY22), according to the central bank’s updated statistics released on Monday.
It showed that the merchandise trade deficit stood at $33.25 billion in the last fiscal year (FY22) which was $23.78 billion in the previous fiscal year (FY21).
Bangladesh Bank on Monday released the provisional estimate of the annual balance of payments (BoPs) which also showed that the big jump in imports of goods had widened the trade gap creating big pressure on the foreign exchange reserve as well as exchange rates.
Imports of goods, on the basis of free on board (f.o.b.) valuation, stood at $82.49 billion in the last fiscal year against $60.68 billion in FY21.
Thus, imports recorded around 36 per cent growth in FY22.
At the same time, earnings from exports of goods (on f.o.b. basis) registered 33.45 per cent growth and reached at $49.24 billion in FY22. The amount was $36.90 billion in FY21.
The deficit in trade in services also increased in the last fiscal year and stood at $3.87 billion.
Receipts from services exports recorded $9.98 billion against the services imports worth $13.85 billion in FY22.
Big deficits in external trade in goods and services coupled with negative growth in annual inward remittance enhanced the current account deficit to $18.70 billion in the last fiscal year, four times jump from the deficit of $4.57 billion in FY21.
