Exports bounce back in May

Staff Reporter  :
Bangladesh’s export earnings registered a 26.61 per cent year-on-year growth in May of the current financial year.

Bangladesh shipped out goods worth $4.849 billion in May of FY23, while it was $3.83 billion in the same month of the previous fiscal year, as per Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data published on Sunday.

After a decline of two straight months, the export earnings finally saw an upward move of $1 billion in this month. However, the earning from exports is still short by 5.29 per cent of the government’s target as the government had set a target to earn $5.12 billion in May.

The merchandise exports also touched the milestone of $50 billion in the first eleven months of the current fiscal.

From July to May in FY23 overall export performance amounted to $50.527 billion an increase of 7.11 per cent from $47.17 billion in the July-May period of FY22. Considering the overall exports trend, except RMG other the major exporting industries showed negative growth or narrow growth in the eleven months of the FY23.

RMG exports in the July-May grew by 10.67 per cent to $42.63 billion from $ 38.52 billion in the same period of the previous financial year. RMG exports also surpassed the targeted amount by 0.76 per cent in this period.

Only in May, the apparel sector has recorded a 28.3 per cent year-on-year growth in export earnings to $4.05 billion. Last year, in May, Bangladesh earned $3.16 billion from this export oriented sector.

Like previous years, export growth of the current financial year basically positively moving based on the growth of RMG sector.

Other export of oriented sectors like leather and leather goods saw a very narrow growth of 0.42 per cent in last 11 months. The amount is marginally increased by five million than the year ago.

Moreover, export earnings from frozen and live fish decreased by 18.82 per cent in last eleven months.

Shrimps export significantly reduced by 24.23 per cent to $283.55 million from $374.20 million compared with in this period (July-May) of FY23 than FY22, according to the data from EPB.

Apart from this, export earnings from agricultural products also alarmingly downed by 27.78 per cent, Jute and Jute goods by 19.57 per cent and handicrafts by 32.14 per cent in these 11 months.

Likewise, specialized textiles exports reduced by 11.93 per cent, home textile went down by 30.14 per cent, glass and glass ware by 39.3 per cent in this period of July to May of this financial year from the last fiscal.

Meanwhile, the country’s overall export earnings in the last eleven months of FY23 are still far behind its strategic target of $58.00 billion.

Bangladesh shipped out $52.08 billion in last financial year of 2021-2022.