The country’s export growth in first 10 months of the current fiscal year slumped to 8.41 per cent compared with the same period of the last fiscal year when the export growth was 40 per cent year-on-year.
Officials of Export Promotion Bureau said that the economic crisis in Europe and sluggish market in the US continued to take toll on the export especially of readymade garments as earnings in April continued its negative trend for the second consecutive month as exports in the month was 7.13 per cent lower than the figure of April in 2011.
According to statistics released by the EPB, export earnings in the first 10 months, July-April, of the current fiscal year was $19.78 billion, growing by only 8.41 per cent from the same period of previous FY 2010-2011.
‘We are certainly going to miss the export target of this fiscal year of $26 billion as the export figure in 10 months is disappointing. The government earlier set the target considering that the export will rise by 15 per cent this fiscal year from the last fiscal year when total exports were $22.92 billion,’ said an EPB official.
During July-April of FY 2010-2011, the country’s export earning was $18.24 billion, which was 40.88 per cent higher than the same period of 2009-2010 fiscal year.
The export earning in the first 10 months of the current 2011-2012 fiscal year is also 6.99 per cent lower than the government’s strategic target of $21.26 billion.
The total export earnings during the last fiscal year stood at $22.92 billion, which was higher by 23.92 per cent than the target of $ 18.50 billion.
‘The economic crisis in Europe which is the major export destination of Bangladesh and sluggish growth in US market are taking toll on the country’s exports. The exports figure will definitely hurt the economy of the country,’ said the EPB official.
Besides, the Bangladesh jute market is also heavily hit because of crisis in the Middle East, he said.
According to the EPB statistics of the July-April period, woven garments fetched the bulk of the earnings with $7.83 billion that represented a 16.90 per cent growth over the same period last year while knitwear accounted for $7.69 billion having a growth of 2.99 per cent.
During the period, the export of home textiles totalled at $734.84 million with a good growth of 10.32 per cent; footwear exports fetched $279.79 million, primary commodities $821.55 million, frozen foods, including frozen fish, shrimps and others $506.72 million, and agricultural products $314.83 million.
The export of jute and jute goods during the July-April period declined to $805.82 million, registering a 9.99 per cent fall. Raw jute exports fetched $224.78 million with a 22.44 per cent decline, jute yarn and twine $385.15 million, and other items brought some $40.64 million.
Jute sacks and bags, however, notched a positive growth of 9.57 per cent as exports totalled at $155.25 million.
Leather exports totalled at $264.77 million, while leather products $73.93 million, cotton and cotton products together earned $88.24 million, plastic products $74.08 million and rubber fetched $13.40 million.
Engineering products, including iron and steel, bicycle and electronic products fetched almost $288.76 million. Engineering equipments fetched $41.97 million with a growth of 103.74 per cent.
The export of manmade filaments and staple fibres totalled $64.04 million, caps $42.08 million while the export of ships, boats and floating structures fetched $46.23 million.
Specialised textiles, including terry towel, showed a negative growth of 21.95 per cent, earning $108.21 million during the July-April period of the current fiscal while export of petroleum by-products accounted for just $237.82 million.
-With New Age input
