Staff Reporter :
The country’s overall export earnings have plummeted again due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that has already jolted the Western world and economy.
The country has exported goods worth $3.31 billion in December with a 6.11 per cent year-on-year drop and missing the target by 6.13 per cent, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The export earnings from all sectors, including garments (except jute and jute goods) are now declining due to the deadly pandemic.
Dr Rubana Huq, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), in an open letter recently said that the current downtrend in RMG export would probably continue till April of this year.
Economists, however, said that the export situation could improve soon as the global lockdown is not so strong, vaccination activities have already started in the western countries and the complexity of the US presidential election has gone.
The drop in the last month of the year also contributed to an overall 0.36 per cent fall in exports to $19.23 billion in the first half of 2020-21 fiscal year. Before December, the exporting industries had a 1.0 per cent growth in the first five months of the financial year.
The data said that the export earnings in the six months from July to December missed the target by 2.25 per cent and the readymade garments contributed $15.54 billion to the total of export earnings of this period.
The total exports figure in the sector missed the target by 4.12 per cent with a 3.0 per cent year-on-year fall.
A nearly 4.0 per cent growth in cheap knitwear exports contributed $8.52 billion to the earnings from the apparel sector, while overseas sales of woven products plummeted by 10.22 per cent to a little over $7.0 billion, missing the target by 14.39 per cent.
The pharmaceutical sector posted a 17.15 per cent growth and jute 30 per cent while export of handicraft increased by 48.7 per cent.
But earnings from leather and leather products fell by 17 per cent, and frozen fish 3.71 per cent.
After the pandemic began in China in late 2019, Bangladesh’s export earnings dipped to as low as $520 million, including $360 million of the apparel industry, in April 2020.
Export earnings rebounded somewhat in May, growing almost three times over the April receipts, as factories began reopening with relaxed restrictions. But it still marked a 61.56 per cent year-on-year drop.
Exports bounced back to grow in July and continued the trend steadily in the following two months, beating the targets. A subsequent slump in October was followed by another spell of growth in November.
“People in the US and Europe aren’t buying things that are not essential after being hit by the second or third wave of COVID-19. It seems that this negative trend will continue until the situation normalises,” said Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute (PRI).
He, however, sees no reason to be worried as Bangladesh has been able to keep the drop in exports to as low as 0.36 per cent amid the pandemic crisis after a 17 per cent fall in the last fiscal year. “The negative trend had been there before the pandemic hit,” he said.
