DHAKA: Bangladesh has earned $12.88 billion from exports in the first five months of the ongoing fiscal, registering a 6.71 percent rise over the same period the previous financial year. The income in this past November also surged 13.73 percent from the same month last year.
Export Promotion Bureau’s Vice-Chairman Shubhashish Basu and BKMEA President AKM Selim Osman think political stability over the last months has had a positive impact on the export. They expect the trend to continue through the remaining months of the current 2015-16 fiscal.
The figures the EPB released on Sunday show that local businesses sold overseas goods and produce worth $12.8798 billion in the July-November period against a target of $12.8790 billion. In the previous fiscal, the exports had fetched $12.07 billion in those five months, which means the country earned 0.01 more than the target.
The maximum earnings—$5.23 billion— have come from the export of knit garments. Woven clothes have fetched $5.22 billion. An analysis of the figures show knit garment export has risen by 4.78 percent, while that of woven garments by 11.35 percent. The earnings from the export of knit garments were 2.68 percent more than the target; in case of the woven variety it is 3.65 percent in excess of the goal.
Export earnings during the first three months of the current fiscal year (July-September) were almost the same as the in the same period the previous year. The increase has been registered due an export surge in October and November.
In October, exports had leaped by 21.15 percent. Shubhashish Basu recalled the adverse impact the BNP-Jamaat’s violent agitation of shutdowns and blockades earlier this year had on the economy and the country’s image.
“Buyers who had thought of turning away from Bangladesh because of political instability are now all buying from here,” he told bdnews24.com. In addition, garment manufacturers’ ‘compliance’ with safety standards set by international buyers had also favourably influenced export performance, he said.
Selim Osman told bdnews24.com, “We are exporting knit ware in new markets. That has had a positive impact on export earnings.” Continued political stability would further boost exports, he felt.
