DHAKA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's trade deficit shrank to 11.93 billion U.S. dollars in the first three quarters of the current 2018-19 fiscal year (July 2018-June 2019) as the growth in exports outpaced the increase in imports, central bank data showed Sunday.

In the July-March period, the trade deficit was 9.24 percent lower than the deficit recorded in the same period of the previous fiscal year 2017-18, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data showed.

A central bank official who preferred to be unnamed said the country's import payment was 42.37 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.13 percent, in the July-March period of the current fiscal year, while earnings from exports stood at 30.44 billion U.S. dollars, up 12.09 percent, during the same period.

In the last fiscal year 2017-18, Bangladesh incurred a wider trade deficit.

The country's balance of trade in goods expanded to 18.26 billion U.S. dollars of deficit in the last fiscal year 2017-18, compared with 9.47 billion U.S. dollars in the previous 2016-17 fiscal year.