Bangladesh’s current account deficit shrank sharply in the first ten months of the 2024–25 fiscal year, driven largely by a surge in remittance inflows, according to the latest data released by Bangladesh Bank.
Between July and April, the current account deficit dropped to $1.39 billion—down significantly from $6.02 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
This marks a substantial improvement in the country’s external balance, offering some relief amid ongoing concerns over foreign exchange reserves and macroeconomic stability.
The current account reflects a country’s economic transactions with the rest of the world, including trade in goods and services, income from foreign investments, and net transfers such as remittances.
A major contributor to the improvement was a strong rise in secondary income, particularly remittances.
Secondary income rose to $24.93 billion in July–April FY25, up from $19.49 billion in the same period of FY24.
Of that, remittances alone accounted for $24.53 billion—a jump of over 25 per cent year-on-year.
Analysts credit this to an increase in remittance flows via banking channels, supported by policy incentives and robust outmigration of workers.
Despite the positive remittance trend, the country continued to post a deficit in its primary income account.
This segment includes payments to foreign investors for interest, dividends, and compensation of foreign workers. The deficit in this category widened to $3.8 billion, with $4.37 billion in payments made abroad while income received totaled only $570 million.
Bangladesh’s trade deficit, although still large, also showed slight improvement.
The gap narrowed to $18.22 billion, compared with $18.7 billion a year earlier.
Export earnings grew by 8.6 per cent, reaching $36.56 billion, up from $33.67 billion in the previous year. Import payments rose to $54.8 billion—an increase of 4.6 per cent from $52.37 billion.
However, the deficit in the trade in services widened during the period, rising to $4.3 billion from $3.32 billion a year ago.
 This was attributed to increased spending on international travel, transportation, and other business-related services.
The financial account, which tracks foreign investments and borrowing, registered a surplus of $1.96 billion—lower than the $2.25 billion surplus in the same period of FY24.
Foreign loan disbursements declined to $4.8 billion from $6.16 billion, while repayments increased to $2.19 billion from $1.7 billion, reflecting a more cautious borrowing approach amid global interest rate pressures.
As of May 29, Bangladesh’s gross foreign exchange reserves stood at $20.56 billion, based on the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) calculation.