Trade Deficit

File photo Record amount of goods imported in 9 months

Record trade deficit in 9 months

Bangladesh never faced such a trade deficit in any financial year. As a result, the current account balance (balance of payments) of foreign transactions has also been hit hard.

According to experts, the huge trade deficit has widened due to the abnormal rise in prices of all types of products, including food and fuel, in the world market. There was never such a huge trade deficit (about 25 billion or 2,490.7 crore dollars).

Earlier, the trade deficit in the first nine months of the fiscal year 2020-21 was 15.28 billion dollars. The deficit for the entire fiscal year was 22.8 billion dollars. As such, the trade deficit in the first nine months of the current fiscal year is 9.25 percent more than the entire period of the last fiscal year. This year's trade deficit is about 64 percent higher than the same period last year (July-March).

As a result of the huge trade deficit, Bangladesh has also incurred a huge deficit in the current account balance (balance of payments) of foreign transactions. During July-March, the deficit exceeded to 14.7 billion dollars, which was 55.5 crore dollars at the same time in the last fiscal year.

According to the latest data from Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh imported a variety of goods worth 6,152.4 crore or 61.52 billion dollars during July-March 2021-22, which is 43.86 percent more than the same period of 2020-21. In the first nine months of the last financial year, goods worth 42.76 billion dollars were imported.

Meanwhile, during the current (2021-22) fiscal year (July-March), the country earned 36.61 billion dollars by exporting various products, which is 32.92 percent more than the same period of the fiscal year 2020-21. As a result, the overall trade deficit in nine months amounted to 24.91 billion dollars.