Exports grow by 7.1 percent in first half of FY2017-18

Published in New Age on January 04, 2018

Country’s export earnings in the first half of the current financial year 2017-18 posted a moderate growth of 7.15 per cent to stand at $17.92 billion from $16.72 billion in the same period a year ago amid weakening of the taka against the US dollar.

Although the July-December earnings topped the government-set target of $17.88 billion for the six months of the fiscal year, experts and exporters said that the growth rate should have been double-digit considering the rise in the country’s import payments.

The less-than-expected growth in export of woven garments, which is one of the two major garment export items, dampened the overall growth in garment exports despite posting a relatively good growth in knitwear exports, showed the Export Promotion Bureau data released on Thursday.

Export target for the month of December, however, fell short as the country’s total exports in the month stood at $3.35 billion against the target of $3.41 billion.

Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh executive director Ahsan H Mansur told New Age, ‘The export growth rate in the first half of this fiscal year is better than the growth the country’s exports witnessed in the first couple of months of the year.’

He, however, said, ‘Achieving respectable double-digit export growth should be our goal.’

As import payments have increased significantly in recent months, the country needs to accelerate export growth as well, he said.

‘Knitwear export growth was better than that of the woven as we have lost woven-market share in the US market,’ he said.

Former Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Abdus Salam Murshedy told New Age that the country’s export growth was satisfactory but ‘nothing to be overwhelmed’.

Devaluation of the local currency, taka, against the US dollar helped a bit to achieve the growth, he said.

On the other hand, he said, continuation of government’s policy support has become crucial in the context of declining prices of and demand for readymade garment products at the international market.

The EPB data showed that the earnings from RMG product exports in July-December of FY18 grew by 7.75 per cent to $14.77 billion from $13.70 billion in the same period of FY17.

Knitwear export grew by 11.47 per cent to $7.59 billion from $6.81 billion.

The growth of woven garments export was 4.08 per cent in the first half of FY18 with the total export of the products stood at $7.18 billion from $6.89 billion in the same period a year ago.

The EPB data showed that leather and leather product exports in the first six months of FY18 fell by 1.21 per cent to $620.27 million compared with that of $627.86 million in the same period of FY17.

Earnings from leather footwear export, however, grew by 8.52 per cent to $307.52 million while the earnings from leather products increased by 2.81 per cent to $215 million.

Export of raw leather, however, declined by 27.84 per cent to $97.53 million from $135.16 million.

Frozen food and fish exports in July-December of FY18 grew by 7.17 per cent to $312.46 million from $291.56 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The EPB data showed that export earnings from jute and jute goods in the period of FY18 grew by 21.48 per cent to $574 million from $472.57 million in the same period of FY17.