Dhaka, Sept 2 - Bangladesh's balance of payments slumped 59.54 percent to $604 million in the 2007/08 fiscal year that ended in June from a year earlier due to soaring food and oil import costs, the central bank said on Tuesday.
Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves in the last fiscal year stood at $6.15 billion against $5.1 billion in the 2006/07 fiscal year.
The central bank had said it aimed to raise the target by 20 percent to $6 billion to reflect the rising cost of imports.
Imports for July-June increased by nearly 26 percent from a year earlier, while exports rose 15.7 percent, bringing the trade deficit to $5.54 billion from $3.46 billion in the 2006/07 fiscal year, it said.
The trade deficit widened mostly due to sharp rises in world prices of grains, including rice and wheat, as well as oil and fertiliser, a central bank official said.
Also, natural disasters that hit the poor South Asian nation of more than 140 million people last year destroyed nearly 2 million tonnes of rice, the country's staple, leading to a sharp rise in foodgrains imports.
Officials said strong remittances from more than 5 million Bangladeshis working abroad helped offset the impact of the trade shortfall and kept the overall balance of payments in surplus. Bangladesh received $7.9 billion in remittances in 2007/08, more than 32 percent higher than the previous fiscal year.
But net foreign direct investments fell 18 percent to $650 million in the year to June.