Published in New Age on Monday, 8 September 2014.
Export earnings fall 9pc short of target in Jul-Aug
Staff Correspondent
Export earnings in the first two months of the current financial year fell 9.16 per cent short of the government-set target of $5.66 billion, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data released on Sunday.
Country’s export earnings in the July-August period of the FY 2014-15 fetched $5.14 billion with a 2.07-per cent growth from $5.03 billion earnings in the same period of the FY 2013-14.
After a negative growth in the first month of the current financial year the export earnings in July-August witnessed a positive growth but the growth rate was awful compared with that of the same period of the FY 2013-14.
According to the EPB data, the export earnings growth in the July-August period of the FY 2013-14 was 14.74 per cent. Export earnings in July of the FY15 posted a negative growth of 1.37 per cent year-on-year after 23 months of positive growth, the EPB data showed.
The single month export earnings in August of the FY15 also fell 17.46 per cent short of the target of $2.15 billion. Experts and exporters said that the export earnings growth in the first two months of this financial year witnessed a poor growth due to sluggish earnings from the readymade garments.
After the Rana Plaza tragedy buyers from the traditional markets became cautious to procure garments from Bangladesh, they said. ‘The export earnings growth has dropped due to less than satisfactory performance in the RMG products,’ Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue, told New Age.
He said that after the Rana Plaza building collapse the buyers from US became cautious to place order in Bangladesh and already the export earnings from the US market had posted a negative growth. ‘We will have to tackle the sluggish export earnings growth by increasing competitiveness and ensuring compliance,’ Mustafiz said.
The EPB data showed that the export earnings from woven in July-August fell by 1.60 per cent to $2.02 billion against $2.05 billion in the same period of the last financial year while the knitwear export amounted to $2.20 billion with a 4.97-per cent growth against $2.10 billion in the same period of the financial year 2013-14.
Frozen foods export grew by 3.59 per cent to $122.20 million in July-August of the FY15 from $117.96 million in the same period in the FY14. Leather and leather products export grew by 18.10 per cent to $ 202.26 million in the first two months of the FY15 from $171.26 million in the same period of the FY14.
Home textile export fell by 0.79 per cent to $115.99 million in the July-August period of the FY15 from $116.91million in the same period of the FY14. The export of jute and jute products fell by 11.27 per cent to $115.95 million in July-August of the FY15 from $130.67 million in the same period of the FY14.
The export earnings from engineering products including iron steel, copper wire, stainless steel ware, engineering equipment, electric products and bicycle amounted to $54.61 million with an 8.79-per cent negative growth.
The export earnings from plastic products in the first two months of the current financial year grew by 35.81 per cent to $17.18 million and the earnings from pharmaceuticals grew by 24.56 per cent to $12.73 million.