Dhaka, Feb 17 (IANS): Bangladesh's trade deficit was almost halved to over $3.5 billion in the first half of the current 2012-13 fiscal (July 2012-June 2013) as a slump in imports outweighed the impact of fewer exports, a Bangladesh Bank (BB) official said.

Quoting provisional BB data, the official said Dhaka exported $12.34 billion of goods while it imported items worth $16.06 billion during the first six months of the current fiscal, Xinhua reported.

As imports greatly surpassed the sum of exports, he said Bangladesh's trade deficit during the first half of the last 2011-12 fiscal swelled by about 60 percent year-on-year to nearly $6 billion.

Apart from the impact of a "restrained monetary policy", the BB official said the second bout of global financial turbulence was to be blamed for both export and import slowdowns in July-December period of the current 2012-13 fiscal year.

Bangladesh's July-November trade deficit also constricted by over 22 percent year-on-year to $3.49 billion amid global financial woes, he said.