July export earnings soar by 15.26pc

Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s merchandise exports witnessed a robust growth of 15.26 percent year-on-year mainly riding on garment sector, hitting a sizeable $4.59 billion in the first month of the new fiscal year of FY24, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data published on Wednesday.

It comes a day after the Bangladesh Bank said remittance inflow through legal channels fell nearly 6 percent in July.

Earlier, in the same month of the last fiscal year of FY23, Bangladesh shipped out goods worth $3.98 billion.

Likewise, the merchandise exports in July also achieved its strategic target by 2.5 per cent surplus which was initially targeted to reach $ 4.48 billion.

Experts said the higher shipment is expected to provide a much-needed boost to the country’s falling foreign exchange reserves as imports bills continue to outstrip overall receipts from exports and remittances.

However, Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves showed a downward trend, which stood at $23.45 billion according to the BPM6 (Balance of Payments and International Investment Position) method in July 23 while the reserve (Gross) was $39.59 billion in July of the previous year.

Meanwhile, the readymade garment (RMG) sector, the highest earner of the export earnings played a pivotal role in fetching a Y-o-Y growth of 17.43 percent.

A total of over $3.95 billion was accounted for in exports from this industry alone, encompassing both knitwear and woven items.

The knitwear exports exhibited an impressive surge, rising by over 22 percent.

Woven exports were not far behind, noting a significant increase of 11.54 percent in July 2023.

Despite the overall positive trajectory, the home textile exports sector faced its share of challenges.

A decline by 40.77 in this particular sector was observed as per EPB data, which industry insiders attributed to a decrease in demand for these products in the post-Covid era.

Except the noticeable growth of RMG sector, the country’s export earnings from of the major export products witnessed meager or negative growth in the first month of FY24.

Export earnings from frozen and live fish decreased by 18.4 per cent. Only the Shrimps export reduced by 33.39 per cent to $266.95 million from $30.85 million to 20.55 year-on-year, according to the data from EPB.

Besides, export earnings from leather and leather products reduced by .67 percent. Home textile went down by 40.77 per cent in the first month of this financial year.

In contrast, the exports of agricultural goods rose 14.53 percent to $72.5 million, jute and jute goods export increased by 2.75 percent, chemical products by 45.89 percent in July.

Buoyed by last year’s earnings of $55.56 billion, the government has set a target of $72 billion in export earnings from goods and services in FY24 with an 11.5 percent increase from the year before.

Export target for goods set at $62 billion while for the service sector, the target was set at $10 billion.