The country’s merchandise export earnings
maintained a healthy growth in August, registering over 36.18 per cent rise
to bag $4.61 billion year-on-year thanks to the good performance of the
apparel sector.

Bangladesh fetched $3.38 billion in August 2021, according to provisional
data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) released today.

The export earnings in August this year were 7.14 per cent higher than the
target ($4.3 billion) set by the Ministry of Commerce.

The ready-made garment sector, as usual, led the earnings and earned $3.7
billion in August, which has seen 36.04 per cent growth compared to the same
time of the previous year.

Talking to BSS, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association
(BGMEA) Director Mohiuddin Rubel said the global geo-political tension and
volatile economic impact caused by that has already started to affect the
export.

“With the rising inflation, consumer demand in the western market has been
reducing and this has been reflected in the export scenario. So, we are
rather being more careful and vigilant than being complacent,” he added.

As per EPB, the overall export earnings during July-August of the current
fiscal year recorded a 25.31 per cent growth to $8.59 billion over that of
$6.85 billion earnings of the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Of the total $8.59 billion export income during the July-August period, the
RMG sector fetched $7.11 billion, posting a 26.1 per cent growth over that of
last fiscal.

A breakdown of the clothing-sector performance shows that the knitwear
subsector of RMG earned $3.91 billion from exports, registering a 20.15 per
cent growth.

Earnings from woven garments export have amounted to $3.19 billion in the
past two months, up by 34.23 per cent.

Home-textile exports also recorded over a 53.39 per cent growth to $268.52
million in the first two months of this fiscal.

Meanwhile, the jute sector, which demonstrated a negative growth in the last
fiscal, recorded a 22.67 per cent growth in the July-August of FY 22 with $
156.61 million in earnings.