In the ICC Global Trade Survey 2016, it was reported that in 2015 Bangladesh had seen the highest growth in MT700's sent (Issue of a Documentary Credit) at 12.84% when compared with 2014.
This trend seems to have continued into 2016 with the following report that appeared in the Financial Express, Bangladesh on 14 December 2016.
"Bangladesh's imports surged about 15 percent to 15.14 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months of the 2016-17 fiscal year (July 2016-June 2017), a central bank official said Wednesday.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) official said the settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual imports, stood at 15,140.56 million U.S. dollars in July-October period of the current fiscal year compared to 13,194.56 million U.S. dollars in the same period a year earlier.
Overall import orders, officially known as fresh opening of import letters of credit (LCs), also rose 14.45 percent in July-October period of the current fiscal year, he said quoting provisional BB data.
The central bank official who preferred to be unnamed said the overall import orders increased to 14,891.59 million U.S. dollars in July-October period this year against 13,011.31 million U.S. dollars in the same period of the last 2015-16 fiscal year (July 2015-June 2016)."