STAR BUSINESS REPORT

Bangladesh’s external balance showed improvement in the first 11 months of the recently concluded fiscal year (FY) 2024-25, owing to higher remittance inflows and a rise in exports.

During the July-May period, the overall deficit in the balance of payments stood at $1.14 billion, a fivefold improvement from a deficit of $5.88 billion in the same period the previous year, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB).

The balance of payments is a record of a country’s overall transactions with the rest of the world.

The current account also saw a major turnaround. It narrowed from a deficit of $6.11 billion in the July-May period of FY24 to just $432 million in July-May of FY25, thanks to record-high remittances and a reduced trade gap.

Money sent home by Bangladeshi nationals staying abroad shot up by 28.7 percent year-on-year during the period, reaching $27.5 billion.

The trade deficit narrowed slightly to $19.38 billion in the July-May period of FY25, compared with $20.22 billion a year earlier.