Dhaka Bureau: During the dollar-crisis period, the export of goods has decreased again. Exports of goods decreased by 6.25 percent in September and 7.85 percent in October. As a result, the two main sources of foreign exchange income, expatriate income and product exports, have decreased for two consecutive months.
Bangladesh earned 435 crore 66 lakh (4.35 billion) dollars from the export of goods in the month of October that just ended. This figure is 7.85 percent less than October last year. And about 13 percent less than the target.
The former chief economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office said about the decrease in exports. Zahid Hossain told the media, first of all, there was a fear of decrease in export income long ago. A recession is forecast in major markets. Although there are fears of a recession, the recession has not yet arrived. Certainly not in Europe and America. Second, the appreciation of the dollar around the world. Most trades are priced in dollars. Due to the rise in the value of the dollar, the value of the currency of the importing country increases. That could have an effect here too. This is the effect of dollar strengthening around the world. Thirdly, the industries have not been properly supplied with electricity and gas for the past few months. The gas crisis in particular was a major crisis for exporters. It also happened that the order was there but could not be delivered due to non-production of the product on time.
Exporters and economists say people in Europe and the United States, Bangladesh’s main export markets, have cut back on spending as inflation has skyrocketed due to the Russia-Ukraine war. As a result, export income is decreasing. After 13 months of negative growth last September. Exporters earned $3.90 billion from exports in that month, which was 6.28 percent less than September last year. As a result, there has been a negative growth in October as well.
The former official of the International Monetary Fund and the executive director of private research organization PRI. Ahsan H. Mansoor said about exports, the problems should be addressed properly. Besides, the export rate should be increased. Referring to the power crisis, Ahsan H. Mansoor said that the amount of power supply should be increased anyway. Because load-shedding has internally reduced the production capacity of factories. This has had a major impact on exports.
The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) released the export earnings update on Wednesday, showing that export earnings for the fourth month of the current fiscal year 2022-23, October, were targeted at $5 billion. The income was 4.35 billion dollars. In October last year, the revenue was 4.73 billion dollars. As a result, the income has decreased by 12.87 percent in October compared to the target.
However, Bangladesh has maintained growth in the four months of the financial year (July-October). The export target for these four months was 17.42 billion dollars. Exports were 16.85 billion dollars. According to this, the income has increased by 7.01 percent compared to the same period last year. However, it is 3.25 percent less than the target.
According to EPB data, exports of ready-made garments increased by 10.5 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year. Exports of home textiles, leather and leather goods also increased. On the other hand, exports of agro-processed products, frozen food, jute and jute products decreased.
During July-October the income from the main export product, manufactured garments, was 13.95 billion dollars. The target was 14.05 billion dollars. In these four months of last year, the revenue was 12.66 billion dollars. As it is seen, in these four months, the export has decreased by 0.74 percent compared to the target. However, the income has increased by 10.55 percent compared to the same period last year.
Bangladesh Bank released the data of remittances on Tuesday, it can be seen that in the month of October, remittances decreased by 7.38 percent compared to October last year.
