Bangladesh’s export earnings – riding mostly on the apparel industry – rose by 5.89 per cent to $5.13 billion in the first month of the new year, despite the ongoing global economic crisis.
However, the earnings are 2.10 per cent lower than the export target of $5.24 billion, according to data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) on Thursday.
The export earnings in the first seven months (July-January) of FY23 increased by 9.81 per cent to $32.44 billion, which is 0.03 per cent higher than its export target.
During the same period, the overall apparel export increased by 14.31 per cent to $27.41 billion from $23.98 billion in FY22.
Meanwhile, in January, the sector earned $4.42 billion, and posted 8.24 per cent year-on-year growth.
“The knitwear items export reached $14.96 billion, while woven items become $12.45 billion, both registering 12.70 per cent and 16.30 per cent growth respectively. So, our growth in the woven sector is comparatively higher than the knitwear,” said Md Mohiuddin Rubel, director, BGMEA.
“If we consider the single month, in January 2023 our export earning was $4.42 billion with 8.24 per cent growth compared to the same month in 2022,” he added.
“Though we are maintaining over $4 billion in export earnings for the last few months, there are so many challenges behind this strong performance. Because the global economic outlook indicates a slowdown in 2023 and globally inflation hits record,” said the BGMEA director.
“New orders also have fallen in most of our factories. So, we need to prepare ourselves to face any kind of unprecedented situations in the future,” he added.
