DHAKA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's trade deficit narrowed slightly in the first half of the current 2018-19 fiscal year (July 2018-June 2019) on the back of an increase in exports, said a central bank official on Wednesday.
Trade deficit narrowed 11.22 percent to 7.66 billion U.S. dollars in July-December this fiscal year compared to the same period a year earlier, said the Bangladesh Bank (BB) official who did not like to be named.
Quoting the BB data, he said the country's import payment was 27.823 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.73 percent, in July-December period of the current fiscal year while earnings from exports stood at 20.163 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.01 percent, during the same period.
The BB data showed the gap between Bangladesh's export earnings and import payments in July-December period of previous 2017-18 fiscal year (July 2017-June 2018) was 8.63 billion U.S. dollars.
In the last fiscal year 2017-18, Bangladesh incurred a wider trade deficit.
The country's balance of trade in goods expanded to 18.26 billion U.S .dollars deficit in the last fiscal year 2017-18, compared with 9,472 million U.S. dollars in the previous 2016-17 fiscal year (July 2016-June 2017).
