As the central bank of Bangladesh disclosed Wednesday the account figures, economists familiar with the development attributed the fast fall to slower growth in both remittances and export earnings.

Remittance inflow expanded by just 4.4 percent during the period while the export receipts grew 3.6 percent against its corresponding period a year earlier. On the other hand, imports also dropped by more than 20.5 percent year on year during the period.

Financial accounts, another key component of the Balance of Payments (BoP), also remained in large deficits during the period under review. This value is almost the same as the last quarter of this fiscal year (July-September). However, the financial account was surplus at $1.3 billion during the same period a year earlier, the Bangladesh Bank data showed.

The country posted a small current-account surplus in October, by default, though, as imports were compressed, economists say. However, the overall balance gap widened as well. The data show that the gap stood at $3.8 billion during the period against the July-September period of $2.9 billion.

The trade-credit deficit was recorded at $3.7 billion during the period. This was almost the same a month back in the July-September period.

However, the trade imbalance has widened even though there are import compressions. The trade balance was recorded at a $3.8 billion deficit in the period under review over the July-September period of this fiscal year.

Navalsang Parmar (Dhaka)