Bangladesh’s central bank, the Bangladesh Bank (BB), while underlining that thanks to the strong growth in manufacturing output and exports and imports, Bangladesh’s economy rebounded strongly in the third quarter of the just-concluded fiscal year even as it maintained that the lockdown that has been reinstated to curb the latest surge of COVID-19 cases, could slow down the country’s economic recovery.
Media reports maintained this adding the central bank underlined this in its third quarterly report on economy in which it stated ‘the recent extension of the lockdown period is likely to slow the pace of economic recovery to pre-pandemic levels’ while adding travel restrictions from Bangladesh to other countries could also dampen exports along with migration and remittances to some extent even if the report stated that in the January to March quarter, when the infection rate had dropped significantly, manufacturing output rose more than 8.76 per cent thanks to the 14.47 per cent expansion in manufacturing of textile, 56.38 per cent in leather and leather products and good performance by pharmaceuticals, chemical and chemical products, electrical equipment, etc.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media, Managing Director of Snowtex SM Khaled said the political crisis in Myanmar, conflict in Ethiopia and India’s COVID-19 situation were prompting global brands and retailers to shift apparel work orders to Bangladesh while adding that garment export forecast is also good consequent to increasing orders from Europe and North America, both of which the garment exporter said vaccinated a substantial number of people against the dreaded virus, but underlined local demand for apparel dropped significantly as consumers are spending cautiously.