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DHAKA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's trade deficit in the first quarter of the current 2016-17 fiscal year ballooned by 110 percent year on year to 2.37 billion U.S. dollars, said a central bank official Monday.
Quoting Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, the official who did not like to be named said Bangladesh import payment was 10,275 million U.S. dollars, up 17.27 percent, in July-September period of the current fiscal year while earnings from exports stood at 7,909 million U.S. dollars, 3.52 percent higher, during the same period.
The country's gap between export earnings and import payments during the July-September period of 2015-16 fiscal year (July 2015-June 2016) was estimated at 1.12 billion U.S. dollars.
The BB official said strong remittances from nearly 10 million Bangladeshis, living and working abroad, helped offset the impact of the trade shortfall and kept the overall balance of payments in surplus.
Bangladeshis living and working abroad remitted home 3.23 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of the current 2016-17 fiscal year, BB data showed.
Bangladesh's trade deficit between July 2015 and June 2016 slid by about 10 percent to 6.27 billion U.S. dollars year on year. Enditem
