Exports to US shrink by 6pc in July-Nov  

Bangladesh-rmg-workerA file photo shows employees are busy in a garment factory in Dhaka. The country’s export earnings from the US market posted negative growth in the first five months of the current financial year 2014-15 while export to China and India registered a modest growth in the period. — New Age photo

A file photo shows employees are busy in a garment factory in Dhaka. The country’s export earnings from the US market posted negative growth in the first five months of the current financial year 2014-15 while export to China and India registered a modest growth in the period. — New Age photo

The country’s export earnings from the US market posted negative growth in the first five months of the current financial year 2014-15 while export to China and India registered a modest growth in the period.

Export earnings from the US in July-November period of the FY15 fell by 6.10 per cent to $2.10 billion from $2.24 billion in the corresponding period of the FY14 due to sluggish export growth of readymade garment products, experts said.

According to Export Promotion Bureau data, export to China in the July-November period grew by 15.55 per cent to $315.90 million from $273.36 million in the same period of the FY14.

Export to India in the first five months of the FY15 grew by 36.22 per cent to $205.31 million from $150.71 million in the same period of the FY14 riding on the growth of RMG and jute products, EPB data showed.

‘Following the Rana Plaza building collapse most of the US buyers and buying houses are not placing orders to the factories that are housed in shared buildings and not compliant,’ Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman told New Age on Tuesday.

Replying to a question, he said ‘We should make comments cautiously about the US and maintain a constructive relationship with the country as the US is the major destination of our garment products.’

Export growth to India and China registered modest growth on the back of South-South trade potentiality, Mustafiz said.

Export earnings in readymade garments from the US fell by 6.79 per cent to $1.93 billion in the July-November period of the

FY15 from $2.07 billion in the same period of the FY14.

Export earnings in RMG from China amounted to $108.58 million in the July-November period of the FY15 with 18.02 per cent growth from $92 million in the same period of the FY14.

Export earnings in RMG from India grew by 24.88 per cent to $55.86 million in the July-November period of the FY15 from $44.73 million in the same period of the FY14.

Export earnings in jute and jute goods from India in the first five months of the FY15 grew by 32.95 per cent to $39.67 million from $29.84 million in the same period of the FY14.

Nazneen Ahmed, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, told New Age that the key reason for the fall in export to the US market was tough compliance issue.

‘I am not worried for the fall in export to the US market as the earnings have increased from export to Japan, China, India and some other non-traditional markets,’ she said.

Bangladesh has a great opportunity in the China market as the country is focusing now on high-end products and sourcing basic items from other countries, Nazneen said.

-New Age


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