DHAKA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's trade deficit in the first five months of the current fiscal year from July 2025 to June 2026 soared to nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars, according to recent data from the Bangladesh Bank.

The central bank's data revealed that the country's import payment was 27,594 million dollars, up 6.1 percent in the July-November period, while earnings from exports stood at 18,187 million dollars, up 0.6 percent during the same period.

The data showed that the gap between export earnings and import payments in the same period of the previous fiscal year (July 2024-June 2025) was 7.94 billion dollars.

Officials from the Bangladesh Bank said strong remittances from millions of Bangladeshis living and working abroad helped offset the impact of the deficit.

Bangladesh received 16.27 billion dollars in remittances in the first half of the current fiscal year. ■