During the July-March period of this fiscal year, the initiation of letters of credit (LC) for imports in Bangladesh dropped by approximately 25.38 per cent to $51.36 billion, compared to $68.84 billion in the same timeframe of the prior fiscal year, due to import limitations, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

Imports of capital machinery, intermediate goods, consumer goods and industrial raw materials significantly declined during the period.

Imports of consumer and intermediate goods also fell by 15.99 per cent and 30.91 per cent respectively, totalling $6.19 billion and $4.1 billion in the nine months of FY23.

LC opening for capital machinery was $2.29 billion in the first nine months of FY23, compared with that of $5.19 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, Bangladesh media outlets reported.

LC settlement or import payments also declined by 5.87 per cent to stand at $57.05 billion during the period compared with $60.61 billion in the same period in FY22.

The government and the Bangladesh Bank have since April last year implemented a series of initiatives, such as imposing high LC margin on imports, especially of non-essential and luxury items, to curb the rapid growth of imports and protect the country’s reserve.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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