Bangladesh's Central Bank said on Saturday overall balance of payments (BoP) remained in a healthy position in the first quarter of the current fiscal despite the gloomy global financial situation mainly due to higher surplus in the country's current account balance.
Data of Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank, released on Saturday showed the current account balance recorded a larger surplus of 366 million dollars in July-September period of the current 2008-09 fiscal (July 2008-June 2009).
The bank said that its Major Economic Indicators: Monthly Update-November, 2008, lower trade deficit and hefty growth in inflow of remittances helped overall balance of payment maintain a surplus of 64 million dollars in the July-September period.
"Despite deficit in the trade balance, current account balance recorded a larger surplus of 366 million dollars during July-September compared with the surplus of 99 million dollars in the same period of 2007," it said.
The overall trade deficit rose to 1.356 billion dollars in the July-September period, compared with 1.182 billion dollars during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The Bangladesh Bank data showed that during the same period, export earnings stood at 4.355 billion dollars against the import payments of 5.711 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, the overall inflow of remittances crossed 2.0 billion dollars in the first quarters of the current fiscal, registering a 43.99 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The flow of net foreign direct investment rose to 395 million dollars during the period from 143 million dollars of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The net receipts of foreign aid recorded higher at 302.49 million dollars during the period against 215.62 million dollars of the corresponding period of previous fiscal.