DHAKA: Trade deficit in July, the first month of the current fiscal year ending in June 2014, slid by about 100 percent to 129 million US dollars compared to a year earlier, as merchandise exports clocked robust double-digit growth, said a central bank official Monday.

The official, who preferred to be unnamed, told Xinhua that the South Asian country`s import payment was 3,125  million U.S. dollars, up 7.94 percent, in July,  while earnings from exports stood at 2,996 million US dollars, 23.85 percent higher, compared to the same period of last year.

According to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, the gap between Bangladesh`s export earnings and import payments in July 2012 was 476 million US dollars.

Officials said strong remittances from nearly 9 million Bangladeshis, living and working abroad, helped offset the impact of the trade shortfall and kept the overall balance of payments in surplus.

Non-resident Bangladeshis in July remitted home 1.23 billion US dollars, up about 17 percent from the previous month.

Trade deficit between July 2012 and June 2013 slid by about 25 percent to 7.01 billion US dollars year on year.

Source: neurope
BDST: 0938 HRS, OCT 01, 2013
AKA/BSK