Staff Correspondent:

In the first eight months of the current fiscal year (July-February), the foreign transaction equilibrium has shifted towards a positive flow.As a result, the negative situation in foreign trade has decreased, and the trade deficit has reduced by 4.41percent.

Experts believe this is due to the increase in remittance flows and export earnings.

This trend has been observed through an analysis of the most recent data from Bangladesh Bank.

According to the central bank’s information, in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, goods worth $3.037 billion were exported, and goods worth $4.373 billion were imported. This resulted in a trade deficit of $1.37 billion.

The trade deficit during the same period of the previous fiscal year was $14.33 billion, which has decreased by 4.41 percent compared to this year. This reduction is a favorable sign for the country’s economy and is expected to aid in managing inflation.

The report also mentions that the current account balance showed a negative position of $1.27 billion, which was $4.07 billion during the same period last year (2023-24).

The overall balance of transactions has also seen a slight decrease in the deficit. From July to February, the deficit in this index was $1.106 billion, whereas last month it was 1.17 billion. In February of the previous year, the overall transaction balance deficit was $4.44 billion.

According to the data, from July to February, expatriates sent a total of $18.48 billion in remittances, which is a 22.6 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The remittance amount last year during the same period was $15.07 billion.

Experts say that since the fall of the fascist Awami League government, the flow of remittances from expatriates has increased, and export earnings have also risen. Especially, the proper pricing of export goods has contributed to increased earnings. At the same time, the cost of importing raw materials and capital goods for industries has not increased significantly, which has helped reduce the trade deficit.