Balance of Payment deficit increases

MNA Business Desk: Bangladesh’s Balance of Payments (BOP) deficit is up at the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year. It had $ 793 billion at the end of the July-December quarter of 2016-17 fiscal.

At the end of the first quarter of the last fiscal (July Dec 2015-16), the BOP deficit stood at $ 504 million.

Bangladesh had ended fiscal 2015-16 with a BOP surplus. The trend continued until September 2016 after which the deficit started to mount.

Another significant cause for the rising BOP deficit is spending on equipment for the construction of Padma Bridge and other large-scale projects.

Import spending on capital machinery has also increased. Spending on food imports (rice and wheat) has also gone up.