Country’s export earnings in the July-May period of the financial year 2014-15 fell 6.01 per cent short of the target of $29.94 billion set for the first 11 months of the fiscal year due to a sluggish growth in the export of readymade garment products in the established markets.
Experts and exporters said political unrest and deprecation of the euro against the US dollar took their toll on the export growth and the export earnings target set for the FY 2014-15 could not be achieved. The export earnings in 11 months of the current financial year grew by 2.80 per cent to $28.14 billion from $27.37 billion in the same period of the FY 2013-14, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data released on Monday. The export earnings in May totalled $2.84 billion which is 4.37 per cent higher compared with $2.72 billion in the same period of the FY 2013-14. The EPB data showed that the single-month earnings fell 8.57 per cent short of the target of $3.10 billion. ‘Reaching $33.20 billion export earnings target in the FY15 would not be possible due to depreciation of the euro against the dollar and appreciation of the taka,’ Policy Research Institute executive director Ahsan H Mansur told New Age. He said that the political turmoil also took its toll on the exports as buyers shifted some orders to other competitive countries. Mansur said that losing space in the US market also a reason for the slow export growth as some of the competitor countries like India and Vietnam gained their capacity in the market due to the deprecation of their currencies against the dollar. ‘I think the export earnings in the FY 2014-15 may stand at 31.30 billion with 3 per cent growth,’ he said. The RMG export in the July-May period grew by 3.37 per cent to $22.92 billion compared with that in the same period of last fiscal year. According to the EPB data, the earnings from woven garments in the 11 months stood at $11.75 billion with a 4.43-per cent growth compared with that in the same period last year. The earnings from knitwear grew by 2.28 per cent to $11.67 billion from $10.91 billion in the same period of the FY 2013-14. The earnings from woven fell 4.72 per cent short of its target while knitwear fell 6.31 per cent short, the EPB data showed. Exporters Association of Bangladesh president Abdus Salam Murshedy said that it was expected that the export earnings would witness a slow growth in the current financial year as exporters faced challenges of political turmoil and safety inspection as per the requirement of brands and buyers groups. At the same time deprecation of the euro and appreciation of the taka put negative impact on competitiveness, he said. ‘As an entrepreneur I am very happy that amid various challenges the export earnings in the current financial year registered a positive growth,’ Salam, also a former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age. ‘Now the key challenge for the RMG sector is our decreasing competitive edge with entrepreneurs investing huge amount of money for factory remediation and buyers putting pressure on them to cut prices of products,’ he said. According to the EPB data, leather and leather products export fell by 0.29 per cent to $ 1.02 billion in 11 months of the FY15 compared with that in the same period of the FY14. Footwear export grew by 26.93 per cent to $429.60 million from $338.45 million in the same period of last fiscal year. Home textiles export grew by 1.80 per cent to $742.06 million in the July-May period of the FY15 from $728.91 million in the same period of the FY14. The export of jute and jute products increased by 5.01 per cent and stood at $794.25 million in the period which was $756.34 million in the same period of the FY14. Frozen food export in 11 months of the FY15 fell by 5.19 per cent to $529.92 million from $ 578.44 million in the same period of the FY14.
