Country’s export earnings from all the major markets including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Netherlands, Australia and Canada declined in the July-October period of the current fiscal year of 2019-20. Experts and exporters said that Bangladesh’s export earnings witnessed negative growth in all major destinations as consumption of readymade garment products decreased due to global economic woes and the country lost its competitiveness due mainly to strong value of the local currency. Although the RMG export to the US had increased before July-October this fiscal year due to the US-China trade war, the earnings posted negative growth in the four months of FY20 in the market as competing countries were getting benefits of orders shifted from China, experts said. Country’s export to the US, the largest export destination for Bangladesh, in the July-October period of FY20 fell by 4.57 per cent to $2.15 billion from $2.25 billion in the same period of FY19, according to the Export promotion Bureau data. RMG export to the US fell by 4.86 per cent to $1.92 billion from $2.01 billion. Export earnings from Germany, the second largest export destination for Bangladesh, fell by 10.20 per cent to $1.96 billion in July-October of FY20 from $2.18 billion in the same period of last fiscal year. RMG export to Germany in the four months of FY20 fell by 10.98 per cent to $1.84 billion from $2.07 billion in the same period of FY19. Export earnings from the UK, the third largest export destination for Bangladesh, in July-October of FY20 fell by 2.05 per cent to $1.38 billion from $1.41 billion in the same period of FY19. RMG export to the UK decreased by 1.98 per cent to $1.27 billion from $1.29 billion. ‘The released country export data for July-October is very alarming. If this negative trend in export continues, it would go to have a severe detrimental impact on Bangladesh economy,’ New Age Group vice-chairman Asif Ibrahim told New Age. He said that the strong value of the taka against the US dollar was one of the key contributing factors to eroding competitiveness of Bangladeshi exporters. The countries which compete with Bangladesh not only devalued their currencies significantly but also provided both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to their exporters for boosting their competitiveness in the international market, Asif added. Export earnings from Spain in July-October of FY20 fell by 4.47 per cent to $863.63 million while earnings from France decreased by 4.23 per cent to $628.03 million in the period. Export earnings from Italy in the four months of FY20 decreased by 14.26 per cent to $463.45 million and earnings from Netherlands fell by 6.23 per cent to $411.94 million in the period. Export earnings from Canada in July-October of FY20 fell by 12.75 per cent to $357.29 million from $409.54 million in the same period of FY19. RMG export to Canada in the period dropped by 11.76 per cent to $319.30 million. Export to Australia decreased by 5.82 per cent to $265.49 million in the four months of FY20 from $281.90 million in the same period of FY19. Export earnings from Poland in July-October in FY20, however, grew by 9.63 per cent to $385.75 million while RMG export to the country increased by 11.11 per cent to $354.58 million in the period, the data showed. Export earnings from Japan in four months of FY20 fell by 4.50 per cent to $444.04 million from $367.00 million in the same period of last fiscal year. RMG export to Japan in the period decreased by 1.97 per cent to $359.74 million. Export earnings from China in July-October of FY20 fell by 19.41 per cent to $240.80 million and RMG export to the country decreased by 18.79 per cent to $138.72 million. The EPB data showed that export to India fell by 0.61 per cent to $466.18 million in July-October period of FY20 but the RMG export to the market grew by 12.39 per cent to $210.57 million in the period.
