Trade deficit rises by $8b in five years: Commerce minister

Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir today (8 June) told the Jatiya Sangsad that the country’s trade deficit increased by nearly $8 billion over the last five fiscal years, reaching $24.16 billion in the FY 2024-2025 from $16.24 billion in FY 2020-2021 due to wrong policies of the previous governments.

“The country’s trade deficit has widened due to wrong policies pursued by the previous governments,” he said, replying to a starred question from ruling party lawmaker of Chattogram-14 constituency Jashim Uddin Ahmed.

The commerce minister said the global energy crisis, price increases due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the dollar crisis and international market conditions have also played an important role in the rise of the trade deficit.

“In particular, the trade deficit has increased due to high import costs for energy, food, industrial raw materials and slow export growth,” he said.

Muktadir also placed the statistics of the trade gaps of the five fiscal years from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025.

According to official statistics presented by Muktadir, Bangladesh’s trade deficit stood at $16.24 billion in FY2020-21, rose sharply to $28.13 billion in FY2021-22, declined slightly to $27.18 billion in FY2022-23, dropped further to $21.50 billion in FY2023-24, before increasing again to $24.16 billion in FY2024-25.

The country’s export volume was $45.36 billion in FY2020-2021, $60.97 billion in FY2021-2022, $53.92 billion in FY2022-2023, $51.11 billion in FY2023-2024 and $55.19 billion in FY2024-2025.

Meanwhile, the import volume was $61.60 billion in FY2020-2021, $89.10 billion in FY2021-2022, $78.29 billion in FY2022-2023, $72.61 billion in FY2023-2024 and $79.35 billion in FY2024-2025.

To narrow the trade deficit by strengthening export performance, the commerce minister outlined a series of measures undertaken by the government.

He said although Bangladesh exported goods to 202 countries and territories during FY2024-25, the ready-made garments (RMG) sector accounted for about 84 percent of total export earnings. 

“To reduce dependence on a single export item, the government has taken initiative to extend RMG-like incentives to other promising export sectors,” he said.

Partial export-oriented companies in eight sectors – leather and leather goods, jute and jute products, agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, ICT and software services, light engineering products, frozen foods and fish, and plastic products – have also been provided bond facilities against bank guarantees, he added.

The minister said the government has launched the “One District One Product” programme, modeled after successful programmes in Japan and Thailand, to diversify exports and accelerate region-based export activities. “Under the program, 14 products have been identified from 64 districts,” he said.

Muktadir also highlighted the government’s initiatives to sign free trade agreements (FTA) with several countries including Malaysia, Turkey and New Zealand.

“Besides, the 3rd round of negotiation between Bangladesh and Singapore is scheduled to be held in Dhaka in August 2026 to sign an FTA between the two countries.” he said.