Bangladesh’s export earnings in July, the first month of the current financial year 2018-19, grew by 19.88 per cent to $3.58 billion from $2.98 billion in the same period of the financial year 2017-18, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data released on Tuesday.Defying the negative growth in the month of June in last financial year, the country’s export earnings in the month of July achieved a strong growth riding on the good performance of readymade garment sector.Experts and exporters find the export earnings growth in the first month of the current fiscal encouraging but say it is not possible to assess the export trend based only on one month data.Eid festival-related issues may have been reflected in the export earnings growth of the month of July as a good quantity of export products of the month of June were shipped in July considering the Eid-ul-Fitr holydays, they posit. The EPB data shows that the earnings from RMG product export in July of FY19 grew by 21.72 per cent to $3.01billion from $2.48 billion in the same period of FY18. ‘Export earnings growth in the first month of the current fiscal is positive and optimistic but it will not help understand the trend of export earnings with only one month’s data,’ Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh executive director Ahsan H Mansur told New Age on Tuesday.He said that export earnings in June witnessed a negative growth as a lesser number of consignments were shipped in the month due to long Eid-ul-Fitr holidays. A good quantity of finished products were shipped in July.Mansur said that readymade garment sector was always doing well but the performance of non-RMG sectors including leather sector was disappointing.According to the EPB data, earnings from knitwear export in the first month of FY 19 grew by 20.88 per cent to $1.52 billion compared to that of $1.26 billion in the same month of last fiscal.Earning from woven garment exports in July of FY 19 grew by 22.59 per cent to $1.49 billion from $1.21 billion in the same month of FY 18. Faruque Hassan, senior vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that export earnings in the month of July witnessed a strong growth as some of the shipment of the month of June took place in the month of July because of Eid vacation.He also cited increase in export order as another reason behind the notable growth as country’s RMG sector successfully regained the confidence of buyers through making huge investment in workplace safety, process upgrading and introducing new machineries.Faruque hoped that the export orders from global buyers would increase more in the current financial year.EPB data shows that leather and leather product exports in the first month of FY19 fell by 21.73 per cent to $91.16 million from $116.73 million in the same period of FY18.Earnings from leather footwear export in July of FY19 grew by 2.52 per cent to $66.24million from $64.61million in the same period of FY18 while the earnings from leather products decreased by 61.49 per cent to $14.84 million. Data shows that earnings from home textile grew by 3.62 per cent to $66.06 million from $63.75 million.Jute and jute goods earnings in July of FY 19 grew by 15.08 per cent to $74.26 million from $64.53 million in the same month of FY 18.Frozen food and fish exports in the first month of current fiscal fell by 31.05 per cent to $40.97 million from $59.42 million in the FY 18.
