DHAKA: Bangladesh has earned around $26 billion from the export of goods in the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year.
The export figure, which was exactly $25.946 billion, is 4 percent more than what it was in the same period of 2015-16 fiscal.
The readymade garment sector has been credited for the growth, which, again, is 4.3 percent short of the target.
According to Export Promotion Bureau data released on Wednesday, the clothing sector contributed around $21 billion, or around 82 percent, of the total national export earnings in this period.
The RMG exports grew 2.4 percent, but fell 6 percent short of the target. In March, the export was around 10 percent higher than the same month last year and exceeded the target by 2 percent.
The export earnings dropped in February by 4.5 percent from the figure of the same month last year. It missed the mark by 10 percent.
The exports rose around 10 percent in 2015-16 financial year, but apparently it will not be possible to maintain the growth rate this year.
RMG entrepreneurs have blamed the drop in prices of garments in the major markets for the downturn in export.
Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu, a vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said, “We are experiencing this slow rate of growth because of the drop in prices of garments in Europe and the US.”
According to the BGMEA, prices of Bangladeshi garments dropped in the US by 3.81 percent in 2015 and 1.1 percent last year.
In the 28-nation European Union, the prices declined 0.76 percent in 2015 and 3.19 percent in the following year.
