Country’s export earnings growth in the July-April period of the current fiscal year 2016-17 slumped to 3.92 per cent, as against 9.92 per cent growth in the same period of FY 2015-16, according to the Export Promotion Bureau’s provisional data. The export earnings increased to $28.72 billion in 10 months of this fiscal year compared with that of $27.63 billion in the same period of last fiscal year, the data showed. In July-April of FY15, the earnings totalled at $25.30 billion. Experts and exporters said sluggish global market and appreciation of the local currency taka against the dollar caused the slow growth in export earnings. In April this year, the export earnings grew by 3.49 per cent to $2.77 billion from $2.68 billion in the same month of last year, the data showed. The export earnings growth in April, 2017 also dropped significantly as the growth was 11.82 per cent in the same month of last year. The EPB data showed that earnings from readymade garment exports in the July-April period of FY17 grew by 2.21 per cent to $23.13 billion from $22.63 billion in the same period of FY16. The growth in earnings from RMG product exports was 10 .07 per cent in the July-April period of FY16. ‘Country’s export earnings achieved anticipated growth in last 10 months as export sectors have faced many difficulties in the period,’ Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh, told New Age. He said that Bangladesh was losing its price competitiveness at the global market due to depreciation of the dollar and high cost of remediation and relocation of factories. Nazneen Ahmed, senior research fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said that a fall in prices of RMG products on the global market and appreciation of the taka against the dollar for a long period affected export earnings. She said that relocation of factories was also a reason for the slow export growth as a good number of factories shifted their facilities to new buildings on safety grounds and so production at the units was hampered. Nazneen hoped that the export earnings would rebound in the coming days as entrepreneurs were coming with new investment for setting up world-class green factories in the RMG sector. Shahidullah Azim, former vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that country’s RMG sector was losing its competitiveness at the global market due to appreciation of the taka against the dollar. He said that there were also some policy-related problems as the government changed duty structure every year that confused entrepreneurs about making new investment. After the export earnings target for FY17 was set, many changes took place on the global market and the export earnings target ($37 billion) would not be achieved in this financial year, he said.
