Export earning growth in August, the second month of the current financial year, hit the lowest in twelve months to 3.18 per cent due to negative impact of two worst factory incidents in the garment sector, exporters said. The export earnings in the first two months of the current financial year fell by 3.86 per cent to $5.03 billion from $5.23 billion target set by the government, as per the Export Promotion Bureau data released on Tuesday.
Exporters and analysts also said that the negative export growth in jute and jute goods was another major cause for reducing the growth of August.
The EPB data showed that the export earning from woven in August grew by 3.97 per cent to $796.05 million against $765.85 million in the same period of the last financial year while the knitwear export amounted worth $848.15 million with 7.01 per cent growth against $792.53 million in the same period of the financial year 2012-13.
‘The sluggish export growth in readymade garments is the reflection of the back to back incidents of Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza,’ said Abdus Salam Murshedy, former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
He said that the real impacts of the disasters have started which reflected on the export data and it may continue for coming couple of months.
The export earning from woven garments was $2.05 billion with 16.98 per cent growth in July-August in the current financial year which fell by 4.69 per cent from its target of $2.15 billion.
The export earning of knitwear in July-August of the current FY amounted to $2.1 billion with 17.19 per cent growth against 12.95 per cent negative growth during the same period last year.
Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said, ‘We have to keep close watch on whether it was any trend as the 3.18 per cent export growth was unexpected.’
He said that it was not proved that the sluggish export growth was the impact of Rana Plaza collapse.
‘We have to wait for three more months to realise the real causes of the export slow down and if the causes was Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza disasters then the government has to take initiative to help exporters,’ Mustafiz said.
The export earning from jute and jute goods posted a negative growth by 14.72 per cent to $130.67 million in July-August against $153.22 million during the same period last year.
Shahedul Islam Helal, president of Bangladesh Jute Diversified Products Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that due to frequent unrest in the Middle-East countries the export earning from jute and jute goods posted a negative growth.
The second reason of the negative growth in jute and jute goods export may be the devaluation of Indian Rupee against the US dollar because Bangladesh is losing its competitiveness as the Taka is appreciating, he said.
Frozen foods export grew by 38.11 per cent to $117.96 million in the first two months of the current FY from $85.41million in the same period of the FY 13.
Leather export grew by 39.80 per cent to $72.22 million in July-August of the FY14 from $51.66 million in the same period of the last FY while the footwear export totalled $97.22 million with a 23.52 per cent growth.
The agricultural products fetched $91.03 million with a 1.25 per cent growth.
The export earnings from engineering products including iron steel, copper wire, stainless steel ware, engineering equipment, electric products and bicycle amounted to $59.87 million with a 32.43per cent negative growth.
Home textile export fell by 15.56 per cent to $116.91 million from $138.45million in the same period of the last FY.
-With New Age input
