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Exports of goods have decreased in all nine months except three months. As a result, exports of goods could not naturally come out of the negative trend at the end of the fiscal year. Finally, goods worth $48 billion were exported at the end of the recently concluded fiscal year 2025-26. This export is 58.01 percent less than the previous year.
The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) released the updated statistics of goods exports on Thursday. It shows that overall goods exports could not return to a positive trend due to the decline in exports of ready-made garments and processed agricultural products in the recently concluded fiscal year. However, there was growth in leather and leather products, jute and jute products, home textiles, engineering and frozen products.
There was a growth of about 25 percent in the first month of the outgoing fiscal year, i.e. July. Exports continued to decline from the next month. After a continuous decline for eight months, exports increased by about 33 percent in April. Then, although they decreased in May, exports increased by 26 percent in June.
In the last fiscal year, exports were worth more than $4 billion in four months. In other months, more than three billion dollars of goods were exported. In total, goods worth 48 billion or 48 billion dollars were exported in the 12 months of the fiscal year. In the previous fiscal year 2024-25, goods worth 48.28 billion dollars were exported.
According to EPB data, ready-made garments worth 38.70 billion dollars were exported in the outgoing fiscal year. This export is 1.64 percent less than the previous year. Ready-made garments worth 39.35 billion dollars were exported in the 2024-25 fiscal year. Ready-made garments worth 2.78 billion dollars were exported in June last year. In this case, the growth was close to 21.5 percent.
Last fiscal year, exports of leather and leather products increased by 7 percent. During this period, leather and leather products worth 12.26 billion dollars were exported. In the previous year, exports amounted to 11.45 billion dollars. Last month, leather and leather products worth 87.2 million dollars were exported.
Two of the main sources of foreign exchange earnings are expatriate income and exports of goods. In the outgoing fiscal year, the country received $35.56 billion in expatriate income. This income is about 17 percent more than the previous year. Due to lower imports as well as exports of goods, the foreign exchange reserves increased to $31.53 billion at the end of last month according to BPM-6. However, if exports were higher, the reserves would have been even higher.
Ready-made garment exporters say that US President Donald Trump imposed counter-tariffs on imports of goods from various countries last year. This hit Bangladesh's exports to the US, a major market for ready-made garments. Not only that, but Bangladeshi entrepreneurs also faced intense competition in the European market. The crisis became more pronounced when the Iran war broke out. As a result, ready-made garment exports have decreased. As a result, layoffs and factory closures are increasing.
Source: Online/GFMM
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