Even as the economic activity in Bangladesh is, reportedly, picking up despite the persisting COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallouts, import of capital machinery, industrial raw materials and intermediate goods was yet to gain the desired momentum.
This was maintained in media reports, which cited figures from the country’s central bank (Bangladesh Bank) in this regard.
According to the central bank, between July and December of the current fiscal year, the import of capital machinery dwindled 36.62 per cent year-on-year to stand at US$ 2.65 billion even if the import of capital goods increased 10 per cent during the period, which led the experts to underline that this will only add to the already adverse impacts on the economy in the coming days as uncertainty is deepening after the contagion has started to spread again, both globally and locally.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media, Chairman of the Chittagong Stock Exchange, Asif Ibrahim, reportedly, said that the trend indicates that businesspeople are yet to get back their confidence to set up new industrial units or expand theexisting ones.
It may be mentioned here that COVID-19 is, reportedly, surging in many countries in the West, which has forced them to impose lockdowns/restrictions for the second or third times.
