Bangladesh’s export earnings experienced a year-on-year (YoY) negative growth of 0.99% of $3.92 billion in April of FY24, slightly lower from $3.96 billion in the same month of FY23.
After positive growth for three straight months, exports experienced a very narrow negative growth in April, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data published on Thursday.
The export earnings target for April this year was $4.7 billion, meaning the earnings were 16.78% lower than the target.
The RMG sector, the highest export earner of the country, bagged $3.29 billion in April of FY24.
This means it fetched a slight negative growth of 1% from $3.33 billion in April of FY23, EPB data stated.
According to EPB data, the earnings in the first 10 months (July-April) of the current FY24 experienced a narrow YoY growth of 3.93% to $47.47 billion, higher than $45.68 billion in the mentioned period of the last FY23.
However, the July-April export figure is 6.87% lower than the target of $50.97 billion, EPB data stated.
During the first ten months of FY24, the RMG sector bagged $40.49 billion, fetching a narrow YoY growth of 4.97% from $38.58 billion in the same period of FY23.
Export breakdown
Among apparel products, knitwear export reached $22.88 billion, while export from woven items was $17.61 billion with 9.11% and 0.03% positive growth respectively, compared to FY23.
Industry insiders said that the country enjoyed Eid-ul-Fitr in April, and the factories enjoyed about 10-12 days of holiday, which led the factories to produce less items, receive less orders, and shipped less goods considering the other months.
For this very reason, merchandise exports also lowered, and businesses said this is a normal issue for the country during every lengthy holiday like Eid.
After a depressive October-December quarter in FY24 in terms of export growth, the RMG sector bounced back to positive growth, and continued till January-March quarter.
But the sector again witnessed negative export earnings growth in April of this fiscal.
However, industry insiders said that although the RMG sector witnessed negative earnings for four individual single months of this FY, it will be able to retain positive growth at the end of FY24, as current order flow is good.
BGMEA Vice-President Khandoker Rafiqul Islam said that they are receiving a decent volume of orders in recent times, but price is still tight.
“Hopefully, overall year-on-year export growth in this FY will be positive,” he added.
Negative growth persists in non-RMG sectors
Except for a narrow positive growth of the RMG sector, the major export earners of the country experienced negative growths in the July-April period of FY24.
Among other notable sectors, leather and leather goods experienced a negative growth of 13.32% to $872.45 million, which was $1 billion in the first ten months of FY24.
A once-promising sector, home textile, marked an increasing negative growth of 25.32% to $702.56 million, down from $940.8 million in the mentioned period of last fiscal.
In the July-April period of FY24, the export earnings from agricultural products, however, saw a positive growth of 6.12% to $774.49 million, higher from $729.8 million in the same period of last fiscal.
Export receipts from jute and jute goods again experienced negative growth of 7.05% to $716.44 million, down from $770.82 million in July-April of FY23, EPB data stated.
Another potential export sector, engineering products, again fetched a negative growth of 0.4% to $436.35 million, down from $438.11 million in the same period of last FY.
Former Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Faruque Hassan said that in April, the month of Eid, factory productions generally went down as workers enjoyed a lengthy holiday.
“But overall RMG export order volume is not bad. I think the earnings will turn around this May,” he added.
Hassan, also a director of FBCCI, also said that export performance on non-RMG has been very poor from the last two fiscal years, and the government should focus on it.
“We have to understand that Bangladesh will graduate from LDC in 2026, and after this, the country will face many obstacles. To tackle this, we have to prepare from now on, and product diversification is one of the key solutions for this,” he added.
According to EPB data, Bangladesh bagged $55.56 billion in export earnings in FY23, posting a narrow 6.67% year-on-year growth.
