The coronavirus pandemic has had detrimental effects on the industries in Bangladesh even as import of industrial materials faced major disruptions.
According to the reports of the country’s central bank, the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the opening rate of ‘letter of credits’ (LCs) for industrial equipment imports, from July to February of the current financial year, decreased by 24.33 per cent, even as raw material imports of the industries also declined by 2.79 per cent during this period.
Meanwhile speaking to the media, First Vice-President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Mohammad Hatem, reportedly, maintained that due to low demand, production was not going according to capacity and that is why the import of raw materials under the bank-to-back LC has also declined even as former economics professor at the University of Dhaka (DU), Nazrul Islam, on his part maintained that industries in many sectors were unable to produce as per their capacity due to declining demand and added that export-oriented industries import raw materials under back-to-back LCs and after making products with the raw materials, they export while underlining that import of raw materials in this sector has been in recession for the last two financial years.
