Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s trade deficit reached a historic high in the immediate past fiscal as imports rose faster than exports.
Officials said the country recorded imports of $41.29 billion as against $31.19 billion for exports in fiscal 2014-15.
“The country’s trade deficit crossed $10 billion mark for the first time in the last fiscal as imports went substantially higher than exports,” a central bank official told The New Nation on Sunday.
He said that export in the last fiscal recorded a growth of 3.35 per cent whereas import marked over 10 per cent growth, sending the trade deficit to a historic high.
However, the unexpected trade deficit following high import growth compounded doubts about the capital outflow under the cover of over invoicing while importing capital machinery by a section of dishonest businessmen.
“Trade deficit is obvious for a country when its import base is higher than the export,” former Finance Adviser Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam told The New Nation on Sunday.
He said, the import growth was much higher during the period suggesting strength in the domestic economy. But, the fact is that the economy was growing at a slow pace due to lack of necessary investment.
“When business and investment climate remained sluggish, a high import growth may be a sign of capital outflow from the country in the name of over-invoicing,” he added.
Terming the high import growth ‘unexpected’ in a sluggish economy, Mirza Aziz said that some of the importers might be involved in money laundering through over-invoicing.
“The regulatory bodies should come forward to launch an investigation immediately taking the issue seriously. Otherwise, a big sum of capital could be drain out from the country though official channel harming the national economy,” he feared.
He also asked the central bank to intensify its monitoring and supervision on the banks to prevent the trade based money laundering and other financial crimes in the banking sector.
In the fiscal 2013-14, the country’s overall imports stood at $36.57 billion while exports $30.18 billion, sending the trade deficit at $6.39 billion.
Imports during the fiscal rose by 8.92 per cent while exports by 11.69 per cent.
