The BoP was $11million deficit in the same period last year.

FDI reached $285 million in the same period this fiscal, registering a 33 percent drop, while the amount was $425 million during the same period of the 2005-06 fiscal.

However, portfolio investment has increased up to 44 percent in the 2006-2007 fiscal, amounting to $23 million. In the last year, during the same period the amount accumulated to $16 million.

Meantime, foreign aid also marked a 44 percent fall as fourteen out of many development partners did not disburse any aid to Bangladesh in the first seven months this fiscal.

Besides, there was no aid disbursement from a number of Aid Club donors due to political instability here and lack of reforms deemed necessary to curb corruption and improve governance.

Bangladesh received $445 million in foreign aid in July-January this fiscal, while it was $790 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal, according to the Economic Relations Division (ERD).

Remittances jumped by 27.55 percent in the July-February period compared to a year earlier to reach $3.82 billion. The surge resulted from the increased use of official channels by Bangladeshis abroad to send their money home.

However, the trade imbalance has gone up to 6.69 per cent this fiscal as imports surpassed exports. Trade imbalance recorded a larger deficit of US $ 1.87 billion during July-January in FY 2006-07 compared to the deficit of US$ 1.49 billion during the same period in FY 2005-06.

The July-January exports fetched $7.03 billion, growing at around 21.36 percent. The earning from exports in the same period last fiscal was $5.8 billion.

Imports in July-January this fiscal increased 22.07 percent to reach $9.79 billion against $8.02 billion in the same period of FY2006.

Despite larger deficits in services and income, current account balance posted a surplus of US$245 million during July-January in the 2006-07 financial year, down from US$321 million during the same period in the 2005-06 fiscal.