In the history of Bangladesh, the government for the first time accepted the fact that annual exports will incline, blaming it on two major currencies that have lost value. Vice Chairman of Export Promotion Bureau Shubhashish Bose said that “Even after exporting more than the target, relatively export earning is lower because of the fall in price of goods exported and especially the devaluation of the Euro and Ruble is having an adverse effect on our exports”.
During the fiscal year 2014-2015, the export target was US$33.20 billion, whereas this target will go down to US$32.50 billion in the next fiscal year. Nonetheless, the earnings fell short by 6.0 per cent of the target of US$33.2 billion set for the last fiscal year.
According to EPB the export in the just-concluded fiscal year (FY) 2014-15 made US$31.198 billion which is up by 3.35 per cent against the previous fiscal year’s US$30.176 billion.
Mr Bose also said that the target was set a bit higher and thus its achievement was not easy as nearly 54% of our export earnings come from the Euro zone which is experiencing economic recession. For the new fiscal year the target has to be set taking into consideration the ongoing recession in the Euro zone and that is why the export target for the FY 2014-15 was set adding 9.0 per cent to the actual export earnings of the previous fiscal.
Meanwhile, leather product exports in the FY 2014-15 saw 3.78 per cent growth and earned $249 million against $240 million of the previous fiscal. Footwear export saw 10.43 per cent growth over the period.
Leathergoods And Footwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association of Bangladesh
