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The value of the product declined significantly during the first wave but the price started to increase when the major economies started to reopen by easing restrictions on movement.

Rahman said the import of capital machinery was subdued in the 11 months as businesses had not regained the confidence to expand their enterprises. Import payments for capital machinery stood at $3.24 billion, down 3.28 per cent year-on-year.

This has had a negative impact on private sector credit growth, which stood at 8.29 per cent in April, down from 8.82 per cent one year ago.

He said imports might decrease in the coming days as the economy was now facing different roadblocks due to the ongoing restrictions on movement aimed at containing the virus.

Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, said the economy had started to bounce back strongly since the second half of last fiscal year.

But the latest spread of the virus diminished hopes of the masses on the recovery trend.

The government may extend the restriction until the pandemic is controlled, Syed Mahbub said. Excess foreign currency owned by banks also started to decrease in the first four to five months of this year, meaning that both exports and imports were on the right track.

Against this backdrop, the central bank’s intervention on the foreign exchange market started to lessen, he said.

But the central bank may intervene in the market once again amid a robust growth of remittance inflow in recent months, flooding banks with foreign currencies.

The recovery of the economy now completely depends on containing the virus, Mahbub said.

If exports face any problem, this will have a negative impact on imports, he added.

Import of edible oil also increased 19 per cent year-on-year to $1.77 billion while that of chemical products grew 18 per cent to $2.66 billion.

Md Arfan Ali, managing director of Bank Asia, said the value of edible oil and chemicals had increased in the global market, putting an impact on the country’s import prices.