Bangladesh’s exports fell 4.28 per cent year on year from July to May 2023-24, according to the central bank, which corrected shipment figures previously issued by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
On 5th June, the EPB reported that exports increased 2.01 per cent to US $ 51.54 billion in the first 11 months of the previous fiscal year. The Bangladesh Bank (BB) reported that the real shipment was worth US $ 40.72 billion over time, a drop of US $ 10.82 billion, or 21 per cent, from the EPB’s claim.
However, the EPB’s May export total was nearly identical to the BB’s. Both agencies reported US $ 4 billion in shipments for the month.
The BB released the export statistics in its weekly chosen economic indicators, a week after reporting that real exports in July-April FY ’24 were roughly US $ 14 billion lower than the shipment amount recorded by the EPB.
The mismatch occurred when the BB discovered six sorts of statistical misconduct for the inflated export data. Anomalies include serial duplication problems, fabric value miscalculations, and recurrent miscounts of sample items as exports.
The central bank said exports fell 6.8 per cent during the 10 months against the EPB’s claim of a 3.93 per cent increase.
The BB became aware of the disparity in export data during the last year, as the gap worsened. The deficit has been expanding for at least 12 years, and it will surpass US $ 12 billion in 2022-23.
