Export growth slows to 4.4pc in 1st half Staff
by admin on Feb.23, 2008, under Export Import
The country’s export earnings growth slowed to 4.4 per cent during the July-December period of the fiscal year from a robust 26 per cent rise of the year-ago period.
Poor performance by readymade garment sector, which accounts for about three-fourths of the country’s total export revenues, pulled down the overall growth rate, industry people and export promotion officials said.
Export incomes in the first six months of the current fiscal amounted to $6,496 million, up from $6,221 million in the first half of the last fiscal year, according to statistics released by Export Promotion Bureau Wednesday. The first half earnings also trailed the target by 8.3 per cent.
The government expected $7,083 million in export revenues during the July-December of the 2007-08 fiscal year. The share of readymade garments in total earnings fell to 73 per cent in the first half to December 2007 from 76 per cent of the same period last year.
Earnings from readymade garment rose only 4.5 per cent to $4,889 million in the period. Of the amount, woven garments fetched $2,319 million and knit apparels $2,550 million, posting 2.08 and 7.95 per cent growth respectively but falling short of respective targets.
In July-December 2006, the apparel sector earned $4,730 million, up by 28 per cent from the year-ago incomes. Earnings from woven garment segment grew 24.11 per cent to $2,368 million, while that from knitwear exports surged by 32 per cent to $2,363 million—well exceeding their respective targets.
‘Mainly the bad performance of readymade garment sector pulled down the export growth this year,’ said a senior official of the EPB. Anwar ul Alam Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, attributed the slow growth to the political uncertainty throughout the year 2007 and intensified global competition.
He, however, hoped that their business would start recovering soon and see a turnaround in the second half. The EPB report shows that earnings from frozen foods, the second biggest export earner, declined by about 6 per cent to $280 million.
Home textiles export grew by around 5 per cent to $136 million, footwear by 19 per cent to $76 million and raw jute 13 per cent to $81 million. Leather earned $154 million, tea $4 million, bicycles $25 million, textile fabrics $17 million and vegetables $36 million, all marking some growth year-on-year.
Jute goods earned $167 million and pharmaceuticals $24 million, posting a negative growth compared with the same period last year. Export of manufactured products, which account for nearly 90 per cent of export earnings, registered an increase of 5.74 per cent in terms of volume, but their prices declined by 1.88 per cent on an average.
In December 2007 alone, exports grew by about 13 per cent to $1,329 million, compared to the previous year’s same month, exceeding the target of the month by 4 per cent.
With file information from Staff Correspondent in independent-bangladesh.com