Political unrest, economic crisis in destinations and weak Euro resulted in the slowest export growth in more than decade, an elite chamber said. In the fiscal year 2015, exports rose only by 3.36 per cent year-on-year to more than US$31 billion from over $30 billion in the last fiscal year, lowest in 13 years. “Back-to-back political unrest in the last two years, economic slowdown in the export destination countries and devaluation of Euro against dollar are responsible for the decline in export growth,” the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka said in its quarterly economic review (April-June, 2015). The export earnings fell 6.03 per cent short of the target ($33.20 billion) set by the government for FY’15. An analysis of the Export Promotion Bureau’s export data shows that the country’s major export products such as woven garments, knitwear, home textile, leather footwear & leather products, other footwear, plastic & melamine products, chemical products, engineering products, jute & jute goods, computer services experienced positive growth while frozen foods, agricultural products, furniture, leather, cotton & cotton products showed negative growth in FY’15 compared with those in the previous fiscal. Exports of ready-made garment displayed the poorest performance in six years with only 4.08 per cent rise to $25.491 billion in FY’15, compared to $24.492 billion in the previous year, also falling 5.23 per cent short of the target (US$26.897 billion) for the year. “Low demand, increased competition, political unrest and rise of production cost due to implementation of factory compliance were responsible for the slow-down,” the review said. The chamber said the apparel exporters failed to attract buyers due to violent political programmes in the beginning of the second half of the fiscal and also fluctuation of demand for clothing products in export destinations due to economic slowdown and the devaluation of euro against the US dollar. On the other hand, the buyers might have placed less orders to Bangladesh due to lack of sufficient progress in compliance issues, and also due to political unrest, it added. Exports to key North American and European destinations increased substantially in FY’15, compared to those in the previous fiscal. Except Germany and Canada, which marginally failed to attain the progress, exports to all other countries experienced a sizeable growth during the period despite the Euro-zone crisis sweeping across the EU countries. According to the EPB data, export earnings from the United States (US), the largest export destination for Bangladesh goods, witnessed a 3.58 per cent growth to US$5.783 billion in FY15 from US$5.583 billion in the previous fiscal, which was 18.54 per cent of the country’s total export earnings. Germany maintained its position as the second largest export destination for Bangladeshi products, but marginally failed to achieve the growth target, marking a negative growth of 0.32 per cent. The United Kingdom was the third largest importing country of Bangladeshi goods, where Bangladesh registered export growth of 9.87 per cent to US$3.205 billion in FY’15 from US$2.917 billion in the previous fiscal and represented 10.27 per cent of the country’s total export earnings in FY’15. Despite being hit hard by Euro-crisis, exports to Spain, France, Italy, Belgium also showed a positive growth. Among the Far-East countries, Japan was the largest importer of Bangladeshi goods worth about US$915 million in FY15, compared to US$862.08 million in the previous fiscal. Export to India was the highest among the SAARC countries in FY’15, amounting to $527.163 million, compared to US$456.633 million in FY’14. Out of 53 Bangladesh missions abroad, 33 have failed to achieve their respective export targets for the first eleven months (July-May) period of FY15. The key Bangladesh missions like Washington, Berlin, London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, the Hague, Stockholm, Ottawa, Brussels and Beijing have failed to achieve their July-May export targets while some other important missions like Canberra, New Delhi, Dubai, Riyadh and Brasilia have been able to reach their targets. The overall export earnings for July-May period amounted to US$28.144 billion against the strategic target of US$29.943 billion, showing a fall of 6.01 per cent over the strategic target. The highest earnings over the eleven-month period, some US$5.259 billion were registered by the Washington mission, followed by the mission in Berlin which accounted for US$4.516 billion and London US$3.112 billion. Import payments in the first eleven months (July-May) of FY’15 rose by 12.22 per cent to $41.351 billion from $36.849 billion in the corresponding months of the previous fiscal. Imports increased during the period mainly due to higher imports of food grains ahead of Ramadan along with consumer goods, capital machinery and intermediate goods. Inflows of remittance crossed $15 billion-mark, a record in the country’s history, in the just-concluded fiscal year (FY15) due to various measures taken by the central bank and also stable exchange rate of Bangladesh Taka (BDT) against US dollar. Besides, Eid-ul-Fitr helped the inward remittances to cross the US$15 billion-mark as the expatriate Bangladeshis usually send good amount of greenback to their near and dear ones ahead of the Eid, according to the review. Also, remittance inflows in the quarter under review (Q4 of FY15) rose by 8.49 per cent to US$4.051 billion compared with the same period in FY14 (US$3.734 billion)
