Opening of letters of credit (LCs) for imports plummeted more than 25% in the last nine months (July to March) of FY23 as the country tightened its hold on its forex reserves.
The drastic fall in import orders impacted many local manufacturers as the supply of raw materials, capital machinery and intermediate goods also dropped significantly during the period, official data showed.
During the period, total opening of LCs was recorded at $51.37 billion, down by 25.38% from the same period a year earlier when the LCs amounting to $ 68.84 billion were opened.
The opening of LCs against intermediate goods dropped by 30.91% during the nine months, capital machinery by 55.88%, industrial raw materials by 31.16%, consumer goods by 15.99%, machinery for miscellaneous industry by 44.99% and others by 18.74%.
Only petroleum imports, whose market remained volatile since the beginning of war in Europe, rose 11.32%, according to official statistics prepared by Bangladesh Bank (BB).
According to the central bank, the private-sector-credit growth dropped to 12.14% in February 2023.
Credit growth was 14.07% in August 2022. Since then, it has kept falling.
