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The country’s export earnings in March of the current fiscal year 2019-2020 fell by 18.29 per cent year-on-year due to coronavirus pandemic.
The disappointing March data compounded the woes of the export sector, which had witnessed negative growth in six out of eight previous months of the current fiscal year.
Earnings in March of FY20 fell to $2.73 billion from $3.34 billion in the same month of FY19, according to the provisional data of the Export Promotion Bureau.
Experts and exporters said that the impact of lockdowns in Europe and the United States had started to reflect on the export data and the coming days would be more challenging.
The country’s export earnings in the July-March period of the current fiscal year fell by 6.24 per cent as the earnings continued to decline in March amid the coronavirus outbreak in the world.
Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute, on Saturday told New Age that Bangladesh exports slumped in March as the impacts of the lockdowns imposed in the EU and the US due to the coronavirus outbreak had started to reflect on the country’s export data.
He said that the export data would be more disappointing in the coming months and the trend would continue until withdrawal of the lockdowns in the major export destinations.
‘Even after the withdrawal of the lockdowns, it would take time to create demand for apparel as the pandemic has resulted in massive unemployment and mental shock,’ Mansur said.
Bangladesh’s export earnings in the nine months of FY 2019-20 slumped to $28.97 billion from $30.90 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.
Export earnings from readymade garments in July-March of FY20 fell by 7.12 per cent to $24.10 billion from $2325.95 billion in the same period of FY19.
The earnings from RMG fell short of the target set for the period by 15.29 per cent.
Earnings from woven garments fell by 7.61 per cent to $12.14 billion from $13.15 billion in the period while export of knitwear fell by 6.61 per cent to $11.95 billion from $12.80 billion.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Rubana Huq said that RMG exports in March 2020 declined by 30.19 per cent to $1.97 billion from $2.82 billion in the same month of 2019 and it would create huge unsettled liability for the exporters.
She apprehended that during the March-May period of 2020, Bangladesh might lose export orders worth nearly $5 billion compared to the orders received under normal circumstances due to the global outbreak of the coronavirus.
The EPB data showed that earnings from home textile stood at $598.19 million in July-March of FY20, down by 7.59 per cent from $647.34 million in the same period of FY19.
Earnings from leather and leather goods in the nine months of FY20 fell by 10.78 per cent to $688.51 million from $771.69 million in the corresponding period of FY19.
Earnings from jute and jute goods export increased by 23.49 per cent to $775.63 million.
Pharmaceuticals exports also grew by 6.50 per cent to $106.22 million.
Frozen and live fish exports in July-March of FY20 fetched $402.6 million with a negative growth of 3.91 per cent.
(NA)
