Bangladesh's overall imports surged 42.66 percent to nearly seven billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of the current 2010-11 fiscal year to be ended next June amid merchandise export boom from the country, officials said Thursday. According to statistics of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual imports, stood at 6.915 billion U.S. dollars in July-September period of the 2010-11 fiscal year (July 2010-June 2011). During the same period of the current fiscal year, the BB data showed Bangladesh's overall import orders, however, increased by around 39.25 percent, compared to that a year ago. The overall import orders, officially known as opening of fresh letters of credit, increased to 8.965 billion U.S. dollars in July, August and September against 6.438 billion U.S. dollars in the first three months of the last 2009-10 fiscal year (July 2009-June 2010), it showed. The country's actual imports grew 7.11 percent to 22.969 billion U.S. dollars in the last 2009-10 fiscal year. A senior BB official said on condition of anonymity that Bangladesh's actual import growth dipped in the last fiscal year as demand for industrial raw materials and capital machinery, among others, dwindled after the country's major export sectors including ready-made garment suffered due to global recession. Bangladesh's merchandise export earnings in the last 2009-10 fiscal year (July 2009-June 2010) grew at a moderate 4.11 percent to 16.20 billion U.S. dollars. Trade experts said rise in imports of raw materials and capital machinery were very much important for a developing country like Bangladesh when its thinking for more industrialization despite the ballooning trade deficit threats. The BB official, however, said hefty rise in imports showed that the country's industrial sector was now performing very well and hinted that the shocks of the global economic downturn finally be abating. Propelled by an impressive performance of the major ready-made garment export sector, Bangladesh's export earning in the first quarter of the current 2010-11 fiscal year grew at a robust 29.98 percent to over 5.03 billion U.S. dollars compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year. Garment exports make up more than three-fourths of the country' s annual exports since the beginning of this decade. Any fall in their performances cause slide in overall national exports, officials said. They said garment shipments from Bangladesh staged an impressive comeback since the final month of the last fiscal year 2009-10 as top global garment buyers increased their orders to Bangladesh manufacturers, finding its products cheapest in the world. 