The country’s export earnings rose by over 21% to $2.37bn, riding on the RMG sector’s good performance in October of the current fiscal year compared to the same period a year ago.
According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) released yesterday, in October, Bangladesh fetched $2.37bn, posting a 21.15% rise, which was $1.96bn in the same period last year.
The overall export in July-October of FY2015-16 stood at $10.13bn which is 4.95% higher compared to $9.65bn of the previous year.
Meanwhile, the export earnings from the RMG sector has seen 18.40% rise to $1.8bn, which was $1.52bn a year ago. But in July-October of the current fiscal year, the apparel sector earned 8.23bn, posting a 6.26% rise compared to $7.75bn in the same period of FY2014-15.
The knitwear export during the period stood at $4.17bn with a rise of 2.76% from the previous year’s $4bn. Woven products earned $4.07bn growing at 10.12% as the previous year’s figure was $3.7bn, the EPB data showed.
“We have earned better than the monthly target for October, but the overall target is not met,” BGMEA Vice-President Ferdous Perves Bivon told the Dhaka Tribune.
The RMG sector has to achieve 7% growth to meet the target of $27.36bn set by the government for the current fiscal year.
Perves, also managing director, Creative Woolwear Ltd, blamed the devaluation of currencies against dollar, safety inspection, insufficient connection of gas and electricity for the missing of target.
Urging the government to provide low-cost fund for remediation works and safety standard upgradation, Perves said the sector needs gas and electricity connection on priority basis.
Knitwear products showed slow growth as its destinations are the European countries, which were hit by the devaluation of Euro against dollar, said Parves.
On the other hand, woven performed well as most of the export earnings of the products come from the US market and the exchange value is stable, he added.
Among the major sectors, frozen foods earnings declined by 26.62%, agriculture products 25.67%, leather and leather products 6.5% and ships, boats, floating structure by98.54%.
