DHAKA: Bangladesh’s export fell 3.5 percent in July from a year earlier to $2.5 billion, the Export Promotion Bureau said on Thursday, 25 percent below the target. Readymade garments, comprising knitwear and woven items, fetched $2.12 billion in July, the first month of the 2016/17 financial year, down 4.4 percent from the same period of the previous year. Exporters blamed the drop on holidays for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
The $28 billion garment export industry had been recovering strongly from a major tragedy three years ago, when a factory building collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people, prompting safety checks that led to many factory closures and the loss of exports and jobs.
It had also seemed little touched by a spate of recent murders on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities in sporadic attacks claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda. But the July 1 attack on a cafe in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter in which 22 people killed, mostly foreigners, signalled a more chilling threat to westerners.
Garment industry players fear that, over time, security worries may prompt buyers to look to up-and-coming garment centres such as Myanmar and Ethiopia that offer similar cost advantages to Bangladesh. Exports in the 2015/16 financial year that ended in June hit a record $34.24 billion, up 9.7 percent from the previous year, on the back of stronger garment sales. The government has set an export target of $37 billion for the current financial year, with garments earning of $30 billion.
