Notwithstanding the fact that COVID-19 vaccination programmes have already rolled out in much of the West, a major export destination from Bangladesh’s perspective, Bangladesh’s exports continued its declining trend even in February, dropping by 3.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y).
This was maintained in recent media reports, which cited data from the country’s Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), as per which, overseas shipments raked US $ 3.2 billion in February, missing the target of the month by US $ 161.9 million even as apparels, accounting for lion’s share of export receipts, fetched US $ 2.6 billion, down 5.4 per cent Y-o-Y.
Commenting on the export performance, President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Dr. Rubana Huq, reportedly, underlined that the distressing situation would continue for a few more months even as she maintained the issue of price cut was another major challenge facing the industry and went on to add that an interim policy measure is required to support the industry to survive until the market recovers.
It may be mentioned here that in the first eight months of the fiscal year, garment exports fetched US $ 21 billion, down 3.7 per cent from a year earlier.