Business Desk :
The country’s import payments have surged nearly 54% in the first five months of the current 2021-22 fiscal year (FY), compared to the same period of the previous FY. With a sharp fall in Covid-19 cases in the country, the rising import bills indicate a steady economic recovery.
Import bills in July-November surged by 53.74% year-on-year to $30.3 billion, according to the latest Bangladesh Bank data. With countries facing pandemic fears, the settlement of Letters of Credit (LC) stood at $19.72 billion in the corresponding period last year.
Yarn, capital machinery and intermediate goods imports had a strong contribution to the bills, which means production lines are kicking and there has been a strong consumer demand at home. However, increasing commodity prices in the international market and rising shipping costs pushed up the import payments.
In the first five months of the 2021-22 FY, capital machinery import grew by 30%. According to the central bank’s data, import growth of intermediate goods was 70%, chemical fertilizer was 105%, yarn was 103%. Drugs and medicine import growth was more than 1,000%, largely due to initiatives taken to tackle Covid-19, including its vaccines and other life-saving drugs. During the same period, there was around a 13.77% rise in LCs opening for rice import as the government allowed the import of rice from foreign markets. Meanwhile, LCs opening for sugar increased by around 100% and refined edible oil by 81%. Moreover, the country witnessed a 31.86% fall in LC opening for onion, 1.35% for pulses and 8.92% for dairy items.
