Import has fallen in the last three months. Bangladesh Bank has said that in last April, growth in import trade was minus 6.12 per cent which was minus 1 in March.
In February, it was minus 6.28 per cent. In April, 2018, import expenditure was $ 5.45 billion which was $ 5.12 billion this April.
Economists opine that due to reduction in the import of food-grain and the rise of Dollar against the Taka, many have lost interest in import.
In addition, the government does not need to import big machinery like the past.
As per central bank information, import cost has fallen by 6.28 percent in February 2019 compared to the same time in 2018.
In February 2018, the expenditure was over $ 5 billion, which came down to over $ 4.70 billion.
Central bank says that in the first eight months of 2018-19, (July-February), import expenditure fell by 55 per cent. At this time, food-grain worth over $ 1 billion was imported. Last year, this was $ 2.41 billion for the same period.
Bangladesh Bank report mentioned that between July-February, rice import fell by 93.16 per cent. At this time, import expenditure was $ 89.6 million.
In the same period of 2017-18, the cost of rice import was $ 1.3 billion.
In the first eight months of last fiscal year, $ 168.4 million was spent to import raw materials for medicines. At this time, import of powder milk, lentils, industrial raw materials, unrefined petroleum, oil seeds, chemical fertilisers and raw materials for garment industry rose.
Central bank states that in May, income from export was, over $ 3.8 billion and in April, it was over $ 3 billion and over $ 3.34 billion in March.