Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sept. 13 -- Bangladesh's overall import dropped by 2.46 per cent in the first month of the current fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 following announcement of the national budget, officials said.

The settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual import, came down to US$ 4.57 billion in July of this fiscal year from $ 4.69 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank's latest statistics.

Import normally falls after announcement of the national budget in June each year, they added.

"Most of the businessmen usually maintained a 'go-slow' policy in the months of May and June mainly due to the national budget," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's c...