According to Export Promotion Bureau’s provisional data, Bangladesh’ garment export earnings growth in the July-April period of the current fiscal year 2016-17 grew by 2.21 per cent to US $ 23.13 billion from US $ 22.63 billion in the same period of FY 2016. But on the scale of growth comparison, the country fell significantly as the growth on year-on-year basis last FY (2015-16) was 10.07 per cent in the same period.
Abdus Salam Murshedy, President of Exporters Association of Bangladesh, commented, “In last 10 months Bangladesh was losing its price competitiveness at the global market due to depreciation of the dollar, high cost of remediation and relocation of factories.”
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Adding to that, Nazneen Ahmed, Senior Research Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, noted that a fall in prices of garment products in the global market and appreciation of the taka against the dollar for a long period affected export earnings.
She further said that relocation of factories was also a reason for the slow export growth as a good number of factories shifted their facilities to new buildings on safety grounds and so production at the units was hampered.
Since entrepreneurs are coming up with new investment for setting up world-class green factories in the Bangladesh’ garment industry, export earnings might rebound in the coming days.
