Bangladesh's trade deficit with the rest of the world reduced slightly in the first five months of the current fiscal year FY23, as slower import growth and higher export growth contributed to reduction in the trade gap.
The county's current-account deficit also reduced during the period.
However, the overall balance-of-payments position shows $6.4 billion worth of deficit during the period, which was $2 billion during the same period a year before.
The latest statistics of balance of payments (BoP), released by the Bangladesh Bank on Monday, showed that deficit in trade in goods stood at $11.80 billion in July-November period of FY23, which was $12.60 billion in the same period of FY22.
Imports grew by 4.4% while exports expanded by 11.75% during the period under review.
As the central bank put some restrictions on non-essential imports to ease the forex reserves, growth in imports slowed down.
Current account deficit amounted to $5.7 billion in five months of the current fiscal through November against $6.22 billion in the first five months of FY22.
The central bank statistics also showed that the financial account, a vital component of the balance of payments, turned into a negative strand of $157 million.
The financial account was $4.83 billion surplus in July-November 2021.
Short-term and other debts are components of the financial account.
This negative component means the net inflows were negative as Bangladesh paid off much more than its receipts during the period under review under the financial account.
