The country鈥檚 trade deficit narrowed in the July-September period of FY聽2024-25 compared with that in the same period of FY聽2023-24.
In July-September, trade deficit reached $4.63 billion against $5 billion in the same period in FY24, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
Export earnings growth and import spending reductions contributed to this improvement, bankers said.
The country鈥檚 current account deficit also narrowed down to $127 million in July-September of FY25 from deficit balance of $1.82 billion in the same period of the previous year as export earnings increased in the period, according to the central bank data.
The trade deficit was $1.87 billion in September.
In the first three months of FY25, the country鈥檚 import payments rose marginally by 0.9 per cent compared with that in the same period of the previous year.
So, import payments increased to $15.19 billion in July-September from $15.06 billion in the same period of the past year.
In July-September, the country鈥檚 export earnings grew by 5.1 per cent to $10.56 billion compared with that of $10 billion in the same period of 2023 due to increased shipments of readymade garment products.
The BB data also showed that the country鈥檚 net foreign direct investment decreased by 15 per cent to $300 million in July-September compared with that of $353 million in the same period in the previous year.
The country has a surplus financial account of $560 million in July-September against a deficit of $1,230 million in the same period of 2023.
The deficit in trade in services also increased in July-September to $1,034 million from that of $861 million in the same period of the past year.
Gross foreign exchange reserves, according to International Monetary Fund guidelines, reached $20 billion on November 6.
The Bangladeshi currency, the taka, which has experienced depreciation against the US dollar, reached Tk聽120.
The exchange rate per dollar was Tk 84.81 in聽June 2021, Tk聽93.45 in June 2022 and Tk 106 in June 2023.
