FE Report

The country's overall import orders fell by nearly 9.0 per cent in September this year over the previous month because of a number of public holidays.

"The import orders declined slightly in the month of September following a series of holidays on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja festivals," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Monday.

He also said settlement of letters of credit (LCs) against imports was almost same in the month of September compared to the previous month.

The import LCs worth $1.957 billion were opened in September compared to $2.143 billion in August last while the LCs against imports worth $1.558 billion were settled in September against $1.535 billion in August, 2009.

"The settlement of LCs, generally known as actual import, may increase slightly this month while the import orders are expected to remain more or less steady," the BB official added.

Opening of LCs for imports of essentials including rice, wheat and milk food declined in terms of both quantity and value in September over the previous month of this year, the central bank officials said, quoting the latest statistics.

During the period, opening of LCs for rice dropped by $0.03 million to $0.06 million in term of value while LCs for wheat fell by $93.26 million to $50.42 million and milk food by $4.05 million to $8.78 million, according to the central bank provisional statistics.

The overall import orders increased by over six per cent in August last over the previous month due mainly to the holy month of Ramadan, the BB officials confirmed.