The protracted COVID-19 glut ultimately seems to be making way for good days as Bangladesh’s export earnings made a strong rebound in the just-concluded fiscal year, fetching US $ 38.75 billion, thanks to revival of apparel shipments.
According to the latest Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data released recently, compared to export earnings of US $ 33.67 billion in FY20, export earning in FY21 was US $ 38.76 billion, growing by 15.10 per cent even if the earnings were still US $ 1.77 billion lower than the pre-pandemic earnings in FY19.
Meanwhile as per the figures, in FY21, apparel export grew 12.55 per cent to US $ 31.45 billion from what was US $ 27.95 billion in FY20 — export earnings from woven garments in the just concluded financial year 2020-21 increased by 3.24 per cent to US $ 14.49 billion from US $ 14.04 billion in FY20 while earnings from knitwear export in FY21 grew by 21.94 per cent to US $ 16.96 billion from US $ 13.90 billion in FY20 — even as BGMEA President Faruque Hassan on his part, reportedly, maintained that despite increase of apparel export by 12.55 per cent in FY21, earnings were still 7.84 per cent lower than the pre-pandemic levels while Executive Director of Policy Research Institute, Ahsan H. Mansur, stated “We are in a recovery shape and hopefully, the export earnings will exceed the amount of the pre-pandemic period in FY22,” while interacting with the media.
