Bangladesh’s September exports surge, led by garment sales

Bangladesh’s exports rose 38 percent year-on-year to about $4.16 billion in September, surpassing the monthly target, led by a turnaround in garment shipments.

In the third quarter of the year 2021, from July to September, exports rose 11.37 percent to about $11 billion from a year earlier, according to data released by the Export Promotion Bureau on Monday. The amount crossed the target by 5.65 percent.  

Bangladesh’s exports showed signs of a turnaround in August with about $3.4 billion, a 14 percent rise year-on-year. But an 11 percent slump in July, compared with the exports in the same month a year earlier, led the total receipts in the first two months of the fiscal year to miss the target.

Garment, which accounts for over 80 percent of Bangladesh’s total exports, appeared to have gained some foothold after a combined decline of 1.27 percent in July and August from what they were in the same period a year earlier.

Garment exports rose 11.5 percent to $9.1 billion in the July-September quarter from a year earlier, exceeding the target by 7.5 percent.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the global economy hard, but stimulus packages by governments across the world and the roll-out of vaccines have somewhat stabilised the markets.

Some countries in the West have even begun administering booster shots, raising hopes of a faster recovery, but a shortage of necessary doses in Asia has triggered fears of slowing down overall global recovery.

In the latest step to bring back normalcy, Bangladesh has reopened schools.

The health authorities have administered the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to about 32 million people and second doses to nearly 17 million, while more shipments of the shots have continued to come.