The price growth of export goods of Bangladesh will decline in 2017 compared to the current year but the volume will increase significantly in the same period, according to a report of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. The report, Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2016, was released on Tuesday with recent trends and updates of the region. The UN-ESCAP said the price growth of merchandise export in 2017 would come down to 3.80 per cent from 4.2 per cent in the current year. The volume of export, however, will increase to 1.64 per cent in 2017 from 0.77 per cent in 2016, it said. The report also showed that because of the growth in volume the value of export would increase to 5.5 per cent in 2017 compared to 5 per cent of the current year. Bangladesh export earnings in fiscal year 2015-2016 stood at $34.24 billion with readymade garments exports recording $28.09 billion. The price growth of export goods of other neighbouring countries, however, will be positive as per the ESCAP report. For example, price growth of Vietnam is -3.20 per cent in 2016 which will rise to 10.20 per cent with growth in volume. Price growth of India is currently negative at -3.70 per cent which will be 5.60 per cent in the coming year. Sri Lanka’s price growth of export goods is currently -5.30 per cent which will increase to 2.60 per cent in 2017. Similar trend has been seen in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand where price growth of export goods will increase in the coming year with rise in volume. The ESCAP report showed that the price growth of import goods of Bangladesh will also decline to 0.80 per cent in 2017 from 3.20 in the current year. The volume of the import goods will increase significantly in the same period to 4.76 per cent in 2017 from existing 0.87 per cent. Because of the huge rise on import volume the overall value of import will increase to 5.60 per cent in 2017 from existing 4.10 per cent, the report said. Bangladesh has become an emerging exporter of information and communications services and a hub for freelance IT services, including simple data entry to more complex IT services, the ESCAP said. It showed that the value of service export was $1,684 million in 2015 where goods-related services, travel and transport witnessed growth. The foreign direct investment in labour-intensive manufacturing, inflows to Bangladesh also jumped by 44 per cent to $2.2 billion in 2015, said the report. Despite reduction in average tariff rates, developing countries still have substantial policy space in tariff rates as their bound rates are considerably higher than their applied rates, the report said. For Bangladesh, in 2013, the binding coverage was 15.5 per cent compared with 74.4 per cent in India, 99.4 per cent in Nepal and 100 per cent in both Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In Most Favoured Nation tariff rates, Bangladesh has bound rate of 170 per cent with applied rate of 15 per cent in 2015.
