Export earnings declined 16.52 per cent year-on-year to $3.95 billion in April as the shipment of garments, the key export item, dipped owing to a reduced purchasing capacity of consumers in the western countries amid persistently higher inflation.

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Economic pressure deepens as export, remittance dip

Earnings from the apparel shipment declined 15.48 per cent, according to the latest data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

The overall export, however, increased 5.38 per cent year-on-year to $45.67 billion in the July-April period of the current fiscal year.

Garment export rose 9 per cent to $38.57 billion during the period. Of the amount, $20.96 billion came from the knitwear export, which registered 8.97 per cent year-on-year growth. Earnings from the woven garment export were up 9.24 per cent to $17.60 billion.

Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the export of apparel items had been declining for the last few months, albeit slowly.

Recently, the export fall was tackled by the higher prices of value-added garment items. But now both quality and quantity can't tackle the export slide.

Hassan says if the bank interest rate in the western countries is not hiked further and the old stock of the unsold garment items finishes, there is a possibility that sales of garment items will go up from July.

Most of the major sectors could not perform well in July-April as well.

For instance, the shipment of frozen and live fish, agricultural products, leather and leather goods, jute and jute goods and home textiles declined.