The country’s overall imports grew by 16.67 per cent during the first five months of the current fiscal over the same period of the previous fiscal, thanks to a jump by 160.13 per cent in import of food grains.
“The country’s overall import has slightly increased in the period under review due mainly to higher import of food grains and consumer goods to meet the growing demand in the local market,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Tuesday.
He also said the raising trend of import may continue in the near future to meet an increased demand for some commodities in the market.
During the period, the import of food grains and other consumer goods increased by 160.13 per cent and 47.90 per cent respectively over the same period of the previous fiscal.
The import of food grains was worth $495.55 million during the period as against $190.50 million of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Letters of credit (LCs) against imports worth US$ 7.560 billion were settled during July-November period of fiscal 2007-08 compared with $6.480 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.
Industrial raw materials witnessed a 16.58 per cent growth to $2.917 billion during the period against $2.502 billion of the same period of the previous fiscal while the import of machinery for miscellaneous industries stood at $548.58 million against $499.17 million.
Besides, intermediate goods worth $560.83 million were imported during the period compared to $472.09 million of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
On the other hand, the import of capital machinery fell by 7.12 per cent during the period over that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, they added.
“The import of capital machinery recorded a negative growth during the period, but it started improving in the month of November compared with the previous month,” another BB official said.
The capital machinery import declined to $580.91 million in the period from $625.43 million during the same period of the previous fiscal, the BB’s data showed.
“Many of the entrepreneurs did not show interest in import of capital machinery due mainly to political uncertainty,” a senior official of a private commercial bank told the FE.
The BB officials, however, said the government has already started investigation into what led to the drop in the import capital machinery.
Meanwhile, the country’s exports posted an impressive 25 per cent growth in November as garments bounced back after months of slumber, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) said Tuesday.
The country exported primary and manufacturing goods worth 1.14 billion dollars in November, 2007, nearly 200 million dollars up from the figure of the corresponding period in 2006, the EPB said.
The monthly growth was the best in this fiscal and it took the five months’ export earnings to $5.166 billion, which is at least 2.40 per cent more than the same period last fiscal.
The five months figure was, however, $637 million, or 11 per cent, less than the government’s export target of $5.80 billion.
“Although we missed the target, it’s a very good comeback by the exporters. It mainly happened due to the excellent performance by the garments sector,” a senior EPB official said, commenting on the export figures.
“The export of knitwear garments have picked up pace since October after some ordinary performance in the first quarter. The woven sector also recovered in November,” he added.
In the first quarter, spanning from July to September, export earnings fell 5.37 per cent less than the same time last fiscal, due largely to sharp fall of garments export.
Garments occupied more than 76 per cent of the country’s $12.18 billion export trade last fiscal year.
The government set the export target for the current 2007-08 fiscal at $14.50 billion, which is 19.07 per cent up over the export performance of the previous fiscal.
In the first five months knitted garment items such as T-shirts, pullover, sportswear and lingerie grew 6.19 per cent to $1.91 billion, the EPB said, adding during the first quarter export of these items had a decline of 3.61 per cent.
Exports of woven garments such as shirts, trousers and jeans fetched $1.90 billion dollars, which is 3.17 per cent less than the tally of the first five months of the last fiscal. In the first quarter, exports of woven garments had a massive fall of nearly 12 per cent.
Exports of frozen food items such as shrimps, the second biggest export earners after garments, continued to perform poorly as it fetched $230 million in the five months, which is at least four per cent less than the same time last fiscal.
Manufacturers said the comeback in November showed resilience of the country’s garments sector.
“Garments exports have been performing well since October as we got bigger orders from the leading global retailers. It showed the depth of our garments industry,” said the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters and Association (BGMEA), Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez.
“We think the figure of December will also show a better trend as most of the manufacturers said they had good export orders. Besides there were only a few labour troubles in December,” he said.
The BGMEA president who leads the country’s around 4200 garment manufacturers warned that the ‘good time’ in garment export might face an abrupt end because of the ‘sudden recurrence’ of labour unrest in the factories.
