Bangladesh exports take a big knock, fall 17.2pc year-on-year in October

Bangladesh’s export earnings have suffered a dip in October after missing the target by 11 percent in the first quarter of 2019-20 fiscal year.

Bangladesh misses export target by 11pc in first quarter of FY20

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It exported goods worth a little over $3.07 billion last month, which is nearly 17.2 less than the exports in the same month last year and around 12 percent less than the target.

The exports until now this fiscal year (July-October) dropped 7 percent year-on-year and missed the target by 11.21 percent.

Rubana Huq, who heads the association of entrepreneurs of the largest exporting sector readymade garment, described the situation as “very bad”.

She says apparel exports, which grew by 36 percent in 28 days in October last year, have experienced a 22 percent slump the same period this year.

Rubana has called for a meeting between the government and exporters in order to overcome the situation.

RMG contributed 85 percent to the total exports in October.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute, advised devaluation of taka against US dollar so that the exporters can stay in competition.

In 2018-19, Bangladesh earned $40.53 billion by exporting goods. The overall exports beat the target by 4 percent with a 10.55 percent rise.

Export earnings continued to rise in July, with an increase of 8.5 percent than the same month last year.

But it started decreasing in August with a drop of 11.5 percent than the same month last year.

The government has set an export target of $45.5 billion for 2019-20 fiscal year.