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“We should give our all-out effort to bring back the confidence of businesspeople for the greater interest of the economy.”

Both exports and imports will turn around from the existing frustrating condition if businesses get back their confidence, he added.

The overall trade deficit in the first five months of fiscal 2019-20, however, were higher by $28 million from a year earlier at $6.68 billion.

“But the upward trend will not be sustainable if imports maintain the declining stance,” Khatun said.

The deficit in current account balance, however, decreased more than half to $1.09 billion in the first five months of the fiscal year due to a remarkable growth in remittance.

Between July and November this fiscal year, remittance inflows stood at $7.71 billion, up 22.71 percent from a year earlier. This has brought relief for the government in management of the external sector of the economy, said a central bank official.