Bangladesh's current account surplus rises to 754 mln USD in July-May period

Dhaka, July 8 (Xinhua-ANI): Bangladesh's account balance recorded a surplus of 754 million U.S. dollars in July-May period of the 2011-12 fiscal year ended last month, a central bank official said Sunday.

Quoting the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, the official who preferred to be unnamed said the current account balance showed a surplus of 754 million U.S. dollars during the 11 months of the current fiscal year 2011-12 (July 2011-June 2012) against the surplus of 365 million U.S. dollars during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (July 2010-June 2011).

The South Asian country's current account balance, which stood back in positive in November after entering the negative territory in October for the first time in about seven years, maintained its surplus trend so far this year, thanks to the remittance inflow and increase in export.

Central bank's current account balance and overall balance of payments have maintained positive trend as export earnings and inflow of remittances continued to grow though at a moderated pace, the BB official said.

Bangladesh's exports growth in July-May period of the last fiscal year surged about 7.44 percent year on year to 21.717 billion U.S. dollars, the BB data showed.

On the other hand, it showed the inflow of remittances by millions of non-resident Bangladeshis in the 2011-12 fiscal year reached a record high of about 13 billion U.S. dollars, over 10 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

Comfortable receipts of remittances also helped the central bank of Bangladesh cushion huge trade gap which swelled by over 6 percent year-on-year to about 8 billion U.S. dollars during the first 11 months of the past 2011-12 fiscal year. (Xinhua-ANI)