Export performance is positive in July-October, but lagging behind the target is not a good sign: Dr Moazzem

Published in Dhaka Tribune on Monday, 7 November 2016

Exports miss target in July-October period

Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Most of Bangladesh’s exports are channelled through the Chittagong port DHAKA TRIBUNE

Bangladesh export earnings in October have increased 14.39% to $2.71bn from a year earlier, Export Promotion Bureau data showed.

The figure is 2.84% higher than the target of $2.63bn.

Exports during the July-October period of the current fiscal year posted a 6.53% rise to $10.80bn compared to $10.13bn a year ago. The figure is 6.84% less than the target of $11.58bn set for the period.

Readymade garment sector rose over 7% to $8.82bn during the first four months of the fiscal, which was $8.23bn a year ago.

Knitwear products earned $4.53bn with an 8.75% growth, while woven products posted 5.37% rise to $4.28bn.

“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 Dhaka Tribune.

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 $60bn annual export by 2021, of which, $50bn would come from the RMG sector. To achieve the target, Bangladesh needs about 13% 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.

Among the major sectors, leather and leather products earned $429m with 19.45% growth, frozen foods earned $196.62m posting nearly 10% growth, jute and jute goods fetched $296m, furniture posted over 15% growth to $12m. Plastic sector has seen 76% rise to $49m.