Bangladesh posts current account surplus of $2.57bn

Bangladesh recorded a current account surplus of over 2.5 billion U.S. dollars as of May as growth in export earnings and inflow of remittances bolstered while imports kept falling, official data showed Sunday. According to Bangladesh Bank (BB), the current account balance showed a surplus of some 2.57 billion U.S. dollars during the first 11 months of the immediately past 2012-13 fiscal year (July 2012-June 2013), in contrast to a deficit of 530 million U.S. dollars during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (July 2011-June 2012). Bangladesh recorded a current account surplus of 2.34 billion U. S. dollars in the first 10 months of the 2012-13 fiscal year, the BB data showed. Officials said BB current account balance and overall balance of payments have maintained a positive trend as growth in export earnings and inflow of remittances bolstered while imports kept falling. The BB data showed the inflow of remittances by nearly 9 million non-resident Bangladeshis in the 2012-13 fiscal year reached a record high of nearly 15 billion U.S. dollars, about 13 percent higher than the same period of the previous year. A BB official who preferred to be unnamed said the steady increase in U.S. dollar remittance inflows in recent years has helped Bangladesh offset trade deficits, which in the first 11 months of the 2012-13 fiscal year slid by about 27 percent year on year to roughly 6.33 billion U.S. dollars. Import payment was 30.23 million U.S. dollars, down 0.39 percent, in July-May period of the 2012-13 fiscal year, while earnings from exports stood at 23.90 million U.S. dollars, up 10. 12 percent, during the same period, the BB data showed. Due mainly to healthy current account balance, Bangladesh's overall balance of payments (BoP) surplus reached 4.66 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of last fiscal year. Officials said Bangladeshi imports saw a slower growth as the entire economic activities have been feeling the pinch of intensified political unrest in recent months when major opposition parties enforced a series of hartals, leading the economy to remain in a fragile state. They said imports will likely continue to slow as many Bangladeshi businesses take a wait-and-see approach since the opposition parties are set to enforce a fresh spell of hartals after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.