The country’s export earning in the first quarter (Q1) of the current financial year 2013-2014 grew by 21.24 per cent year-on-year as the earning from readymade garment sector rebounded strongly in September after a gloomy August figure.
Despite two RMG factory disasters and labour unrest, the export earning in July-September stood at $7.62 billion against $6.29 billion during the same period of the last financial year 2012-2013, showed Export Promotion Bureau data which is likely to be released this week.
Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman on Tuesday told New Age that the 21.24 per cent export earning growth in the first quarter was impressive and it showed that the country’s export sector was doing well.
He said that the export was growing riding on readymade garments because of the global economic recovery, shifting of orders from China and competitiveness of local manufacturers.
EPB data showed that the export of RMG products — knitwear and woven — stood at $6.2 billion in Q1 growing by 24.14 per cent compared with the same period of last financial year.
Earning from knitwear export was $3.16 billion in Q1 with a 24.43 per cent growth and from woven $3.04 billion with a growth of 23.89 per cent.
In September overall export earning rose to $2.59 billion, growing by 36.26 per cent compared with the value of $1.9 billion during the same month of last year. Export earning growth in September last year was only around 2 per cent.
After a record monthly export earning of more than $3 billion in July, earning growth dipped to 3.18 per cent year-on-year in August with the RMG export growth recording at around 5 per cent.
The garment export earning growth in September soared by 41.51 per cent compared with the same month of last financial year.
In September earning from RMG products increased to $2.04 billion from 1.44 billion during the same period of last financial year despite the labour unrest surrounding wage increase.
Many of the garment sector leaders in August claimed that the dip in RMG export growth was due to the affect of the Rana Plaza collapse that killed 1,133 people, mostly workers, in April creating global outcry about the factory safety in Bangladesh.
Mustafiz, however, said that the shipments of many garment products were slow because of a number of holidays including Eid vacation.
‘Many of the shipments, scheduled for August, in fact were delivered in September that resulted in higher export growth in September,’ he said.
Regarding factory disasters, Mustafiz said that there had been no major impact of the disasters on export data till September.
About the recent hike in garment export of India, he said that there might have shifting of some products but the diversion was not significant.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Md Atiqul Islam said that Q1 growth was encouraging despite the low growth in August.
‘Most of the RMG factories were closed for 14 days in August because of holidays. The September export growth, however, covered the low growth of August,’ he said.
The jute sector, on the other, had continued to struggle with its earning dipping by 18.18 per cent to $205.52 million in Q1 because of slide in the value of the Indian rupee and turmoil in Syria and Egypt.
Home textile export also fell by 9.18 per cent to $179.28 million in Q1.
-With New Age input
