Bangladesh’s export earnings from the United States and the United Kingdom, two top destinations for the country’s exports, declined in the first quarter of the current financial year (2016-17) due to a downward trend in the demand for readymade garment items in US and UK markets. Export earnings in the July-September period of FY17 from the US, the single largest export destination for Bangladesh, fell by 10 per cent to $1.40 billion from $1.55 billion in the same period of FY16, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data. RMG export to the US market in the July-September period of FY17 fell by 12.04 per cent to $1.26 billion from $1.43 billion in the same period of FY16.Export to the UK, the third largest destination, declined by 2.47 per cent to $843.78 million in the first quarter of FY17 from $867.60 million in the same period of FY16. RMG export to the UK in the first quarter of FY17 decreased by 2.23 per cent to $780.52 million from $798.37 million in the same period of FY16. Experts and exporters said that shipment suspension during long holidays for Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha, two biggest Muslim religious festivals, and a slump in demand for RMG products in US and UK markets resulted in the negative growth for the Bangladesh’s exports to the markets. ‘There were ups and downs in the US economy and a slow growth in the overall demand was prevailing in the market,’ Khondaker Golam Moazzem, additional research director of Centre for Policy Dialogue, told New Age on Tuesday. He said that Brexit might be one of the issues for the negative export growth in the UK market but the issue was yet to be considered that strong. A decreased number of shipments due to holidays for two Eid festivals and a five-day strike enforced by trailer operators at Chittagong Port were the major reasons for the negative growth in the UK market. Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that export earnings in US and UK markets witnessed negative growth in the first quarter of this fiscal year as that was a transitional period of export season. ‘There is no reason to be panicked as the earnings would rebound after the start of the new season in October,’ he said.Parvez also said that suspension of shipments during long holidays for Eid-ul-Fitr in the month of July and for Eid-ul-Azha in the month of September resulted in negative export growth in some big markets. According to the EPB data, export earnings from Germany in the July-September period of FY17 grew by 18.22 per cent to $1.37 billion from $1.16 billion while earnings from Canada fell by 8.53 per cent to $250 million from $273.32 million. RMG export to Canada in the first quarter of FY17 decreased by 11.53 per cent to $225.82 million from $255.24 million in the same period of FY16. Export to Italy fell by 0.45 per cent to $306.99 million in the July-September period of FY17 from $308.36 million in the same period of FY16. Export earnings from Japan increased by 3.75 per cent to $268.57 million while export to Spain grew by 11.11 per cent to $491.81 million in the July-September period of FY17 from $442.63 million in the same period of FY16, the EPB data showed. Export earnings from France in the first quarter of the FY17 grew by 5.64 per cent to $384.31 million from $363.77 million in the same period of FY16. Export to China in the July-September period of FY17 grew by 25.72 per cent to $195.93 million from $155.84 million in the same period of FY16. Export earnings from India in the first quarter of FY17 fell by 4.23 per cent to $153.61 million from $160.39 million in the same period of FY16.
