Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s merchandise exports in January surged by 41 per cent on an annual basis to $4.85 billion, the highest-ever monthly figure, on the back of healthy performance by the readymade garment (RMG).
The cumulative exports during July-January of the current fiscal year (2021-22) is pegged at $29.54 billion, which is 30.34 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year, according to the latest provisional data of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) revealed on Wednesday.
The export earnings in January also surpassed the target set for the month by 19.73 per cent, the data showed.
As per the export data, the export earnings are setting newer records almost every month because of higher shipment of goods as western economies are turning around from the severe fallouts of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The overall export target is $51 billion ($43.5 billion from goods and $7.5 billion from service) in the current fiscal year.
The EPB’s Vice Chairman and CEO AHM Ahsan hoped that the export earnings will be exceeded $55 billion, if the current shipment trend continues.
According to the data, garment exports, the highest foreign currency earning sector, grew 30.3 per cent to $23.98 billion during the July-January period.
Of the sum, $13.27 billion came from knitwear shipment, up 32.89 per cent year-on-year, and $10.71 billion from woven exports, an increase of 27.23 per cent.
The exports, propelled by a strong rebound of the apparel shipments and shifting of many work orders from China, raked in more than $29 billion, the sector insiders said.
They said the country’s exports have put on an excellent performance, riding on continued flows of orders of garment items, mainly triggered by high consumer demand in Western countries.
If such growth continues, our overall exports might hit the $50 billion mark at the end of the current fiscal year, they said.
Md Shahidullah Azim, Vice-President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), told The New Nation on Wednesday, “We hope our export growth will continue at least for the next two-three months as demand in Europe and American countries continue to rise.”
“There are no effects of the Omicron variant on the exports yet as factories are running at full capacity with orders continuing to flow in,” he said.
On the other hand, home-textile exports also recorded 30.1 per cent growth to $831.31 million during the first seven months of the current fiscal year.
The agricultural goods, the third highest exported sector, have been exported worth $748.99 million with 26.63 per cent year-on-year growth during the seven-month period.
The earnings from leather and leather goods posted $682.74 million with 29.66 per cent growth during this time. It was $526.58 million during the same period of the previous year. Besides, the exports performance in frozen foods and light engineering sector was good during the time.
Meanwhile, the jute sector which demonstrated positive growth throughout the last fiscal recorded a 9.13 per cent fall in the July-January period with earnings of $695.73 million, down from $765.63 million.
