August boom keeps RMG export earnings afloat in 2 months

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Country’s export earnings from readymade garment products in two months of the financial year 2015-16 grew by 5.98 per cent to $4.48 billion from $4.23 billion in the same period of the FY 2014-15 as the export of the RMG products boomed in August, the second month of the current financial year.
Following a drastic fall in July, the RMG export earnings grew by 32.47 per cent to $2.27 billion in August from $1.71 billion in the same month of the FY 2014.15, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data to be released today.
Exporters said that the alternating surge and slowdown in the RMG export were normal as the sector had been going through a restructuring phase.
The data showed that country’s export earnings in the July-August period of the FY16 amounted to $5.65 billion with a 4.71-per cent growth from $5.14 billion in the same period of the FY15.
The single-month earnings in August grew by 27.73 per cent to $2.75 billion from $2.15 billion in the same period of last financial year, the EPB data showed.
Knitwear export in the two months of the FY16 grew by 2.37 per cent to $2.25 billion from $2.20 billion in the same period of the FY15 while the earnings from woven amounted to $2.22 billion with a 9.93-per cent growth.
According to the EPB data, the earnings from knitwear exports in August increased by 25.90 per cent to $1.13 billion from $898.44 million in the same period of the FY15.
The woven export earnings in August grew by 39.70 per cent to $1.13 billion from $815.04 million in the same period of the last financial year.
‘We are happy and it is a good sign that the export earnings have come back on the positive track in August,’ Abdus Salam Murhedy, president of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh, told New Age on Monday.
He said that there would be ups and downs in the RMG export as the sector had been remained under an improvement process.
‘But it would not be possible to achieve continuously double digit growth in the RMG export like the past decade as Bangladesh has lost its competitive edge due to an increasing cost of doing business,’ Murhedy said.
According to the provisional data of the EPB, jute and jute goods export in July-August of the FY16 increased by 15.04 per cent to $133.39 million from $115.95 million in the same period of the FY15.
Leather and leather goods export in the two months of the FY16 fell by 2.78 per cent to $196.63 million from $202.26 million in the same period of the FY15.
Frozen fish export in the period of the FY16 fell by 39.56 per cent to $73.86 million from $122.20 million in the same period of the FY15.
Source: New Age