A farmer makes bundles of ripe lychees at a lychee garden in Narayanganj, Bangladesh on May 14, 2025. (Photo by Habibur Rahman/Xinhua)
Dhaka: Bangladesh's trade deficit in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year 2024-25 (July 2024-June 2025) narrowed 2.09 percent year-on-year to 15.43 billion U.S. dollars, according to the latest data released by the Bangladesh Bank.
The central bank data showed that the country's import payment was 49.30 billion dollars, up 5.6 percent in the cited period, while earnings from exports stood at 33.87 billion dollars, up 9.5 percent, during the same period.
The data showed the gap between Bangladesh's export earnings and import payments in the July-March period of the 2023-24 fiscal year was 15.76 billion dollars.
Central bank officials 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.
According to the central bank's data, remittances increased 27.6 percent year-on-year to 21.78 billion dollars in the July-March period of the current fiscal year.
Bangladesh's trade deficit in the 2023-24 fiscal year was 22.43 billion dollars, the Bangladesh Bank data showed.
