Bank and financial institutions taking a cautious stance towards financing purchases amid the dollar crisis even as entrepreneurs continue to show reluctance in further expansion in face of slowing domestic and export sales, import of capital machinery in Bangladesh continued its falling trend.
This is as per reports, which cited data from the country’s central bank, Bangladesh Bank, as per which, the opening of letters of credit (LCs) to import capital machinery fell nearly 56 percent year-on-year to US $ 2.29 billion in the first three quarters of the ongoing financial year of 2022-23 even as settlement of LCs also dropped 15 percent to US $ 3.13 billion in the July-March period.
Reports further added in terms of LCs opening, textile, packaging and garment sectors took the biggest hit followed by jute and pharmaceutical industries.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan reportedly maintained that persisting higher inflation amid worries of recession in the western markets that had impacted consumers’ buying power amidst inventories remaining still with many has resulted in a decline in fresh work orders, which he felt might continue for few more months.
“Investors are not showing enthusiasm to go for fresh investments thus,” reportedly said the BGMEA President even as the President of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) Mohammad Ali Khokon on his part reportedly opined LC opening and settlement had declined mainly because of an abnormal price hike of energy, the fall in export orders of apparels, the abnormal rise of the exchange rate of the US dollar.
