Economic Reporter :
The country’s overall exports during the July-October period of the current fiscal year posted a 6.53 percent rise although it has missed the target of the period by 6.84 percent, data showed.
Exports during the period stood to $10.80 billion compared to $10.13 billion a year ago against the target of $11.58 billion set for the period.
Readymade garment sector rose over 7 percent to $8.82 billion during the first four months of the fiscal, which was $8.23 billion a year ago.
Knitwear products earned $4.53 billion with an 8.75 percent growth, while woven products posted 5.37 percent rise to $4.28 billion.
“There was slow growth in first quarter of the current fiscal year due to holidays of Eid-ul-Azha. But this time there is better performance by RMG sector, which pushed the earnings up,” Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB), told The New Nation.
He said the upcoming US election and Brexit caused fall in demands in the markets of these two countries.
“But I’m hopeful to see double-digit growth at the end of the fiscal year as manufacturers are planing to increase production while more manufacturing plants are also being set up as they are at the end of remediation process,” Salam added.
Bangladesh has set a target to reach $60 billion annual export by 2021, of which, $50 billion would come from the RMG sector. To achieve the target, Bangladesh needs about 13 percent growth in annual export figures.
“The export performance is positive. But lagging behind the target is not a good sign,” Khondaker Golam Moazzem, additional research director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said.
He said to achieve the targeted growth, the government as well as the manufacturers platform have to analyse the single-market performance to explore potentials.
He said more importance should be given on non-traditional market to enlarge volume.
Golam Moazzem said in the coming months, the export will see better growth as the demands in the US market may go up after the election.
