Bangladesh's overall imports grew 5.45 percent year-on-year in fiscal 2015-16 owing to an uptick in capital machinery and industrial raw material deliveries.

The country's imports -- on a cost and freight basis -- stood at $42.92 billion, according to data from Bangladesh Bank.

Import costs include the value of merchandise, freight, insurance, transport, travel, royalties and licence fees.

Overall, imports recorded a positive growth rate last fiscal year despite falling commodity and petroleum products prices in the international markets.

The import of petroleum products based on the settlement of letters of credit dropped 29.48 percent to $2.44 billion in fiscal 2015-16.

Bankers attributed the decline to the price fall of petroleum products.

The import of food grains -- rice and wheat -- decreased about 25 percent from a year earlier to $1.2 billion.

On the other hand, the import of capital machinery and industrial raw materials witnessed good growth rates.

The import of capital machinery rose by over 14 percent to $3.53 billion. Bankers said power and energy, garment, pharmaceuticals, telecom, food-processing and packing industry drove the growth.

The import of industrial raw materials rose 3.21 percent year-on-year to $15.67 billion.

A senior BB official said the import of intermediate goods such as coal, hard coke, clinker and scrap vessels, also increased, though the data released by the central bank on Thursday did not mention it.