Bangladesh’s import orders fell by over 12 per cent or nearly US$663 million in January last because of supply chain disruption probably caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China.
The opening of letters of credit (LCs), which indicates the number of import orders, came down to $4.63 billion in January from $5.29 billion in December.
“The country’s overall imports are maintaining a falling trend in the recent months mainly due to global economic slowdown and coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan of China,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said.
The central banker estimated that the falling import trend might continue until June this year.