Bangladesh starts new fiscal with plummeting exports

Bangladesh has started the 2016-17 fiscal with exports taking a hit in another blow after remittance from expatriates plummeted.

The country earned over $2.53 billion in July, the first month of the new financial year, 3.5 percent down from the same month last fiscal year.

The export in the month has missed the target by 25 percent.

Economists and exporters, however, see no reason to press the panic button just yet.

Nasir Uddin, a vice-president of BGMEA, hopes the export earnings will bounce back in the next months, if terror attacks like those in Gulshan and Sholakia do not take place and political stability prevails.

He would not blame the Gulshan and Sholakia attacks for the fall in export earnings, as the July exports were actually of orders taken beforehand while the attacks took place in early July.

"The garment factories were closed for seven to eight days owing to Eid in July. It has impacted the export earnings," he told bdnews24.com on Thursday.

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) researcher Zaid Bakht agreed.

"Maybe it's a dull season for readymade garments in the US and Europe. That's why exports have slowed down," he said.

Bangladesh earned $34.25 billion in 2015-16 fiscal from exports – a growth of 10 percent on the previous year. Exports grew 17 percent in June last year.
 
Following last year's growth, the target for this fiscal year's export has been set at $37 billion.
 
According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) which released data on Thursday, readymade garment sector accounted for around 82 percent of the export earnings in July.
 
Remittance inflow in July this year dropped 27.64 percent compared with the same month last year.