FE Report

The country's overall earnings from merchandise export recorded a fall of 3.29 per cent at the end of the first two months (July-August) of current fiscal, mainly driven down by poor performing major export items including readymade garments.

The country fetched US$2,808.15 million in exports during the July-August period of fiscal year 2009-10 (FY10), down by $206.73 million from the target, data revealed by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) showed.

With a total $1,367.97 million earning in August alone, dropped by 4.8 per cent compared to earning in July 2009, the data further showed. It was also 10.77 per cent below the targeted $1,532.96 million for the month, it added.

Shipments of almost every export items have witnessed bitter performance in August, an EPB official told the FE.

"Burnt of global financial recession appears to be continuing," he said adding

that the negative trend was expected to remain the same in the months ahead."

According to the recent data revealed by the government entity on export promotion and marketing, export earnings from Knitwear goods at the end of the first two months witnessed a fall of 0.48 per cent from the corresponding period in last fiscal, earned $1,204.31 million.

Similar fall was also recorded in the earning of country's woven goods, slipped down by a net 2.06 per cent, earned $1,011.87 million, the data further showed.

Besides, other prime exportable item like frozen food, leather and leather goods, ceramic products and tea were all in the negative territory, it added.

President of Bangladesh Garments Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Abdus Salam Murshedy termed the negative growth performance in apparel sector as the continuity of what the sector witnessed for the last couple of months.

"Our growth has been sliding down since the end of first quarter 2009 calendar year. Latest performance explains the situation has further deteriorated," the BGMEA president said.

This might be unexpected to many, but not to us. We have been forecasting this for a long time, he said.

As the impact of financial recession kept on tightening, orders gradually kept shrinking and pressure kept mounting on price in our sector, Mr Murshedy explained.

He feared the negative growth would continue further and warned that it might reach double digits in coming months.

To tackle effects of recession, governments of other countries have supported export oriented industries with various financial and policy packages, he said adding that they received almost nothing from Bangladesh government as compared to our competitors.