DHAKA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's imports surged 9.17 percent to 24.66 billion U.S. dollars in the 1st half of 2017-18 fiscal year ending in June, a central bank official said Tuesday.

The official from the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual imports, stood at 24,660.53 million dollars in July-December compared to 22,588.82 million dollars in the same period a year earlier.

Import orders, officially known as fresh opening of import LCs, also increased by 74.76 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year (July 2016-June 2017), he said, quoting provisional BB data.

The overall import orders increased to 40,234.43 million dollars in July-December against 23,022.85 million dollars in the same period of the last fiscal year.

Bangladesh's actual imports surged about 10 percent to 43.49 billion dollars in the past 2015-16 fiscal year (July 2015-June 2016) when China, India, Singapore, Japan and Indonesia were top import partners of the country.