Exports rise 7pc, but miss target

Exports rose 7.25 percent year-on-year to $2.15 billion in the month of August on the back of a rebound in garment shipments.

The receipts are about 28 percent less than July's collections and missed the monthly target by $457 million, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau.

Garment products, by far the biggest contributor to the export receipts, raked in $1.71 billion last month, up 4.27 percent year-on-year.

Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said apparel exports in August should have been more. “But we could not do this because of some domestic problems.”               

“The export trend is still good. We are hopeful that the target will be achieved at the end of the fiscal year,” said Shubhashish Bose, vice-chairman of EPB.

The export target of $33.20 billion for fiscal 2014-15 is 10 percent over last fiscal year's actual receipts, he said. “So, the target is very much achievable.”

The total export earnings in the first two months of the fiscal year was $5.14 billion, which, although an increase of almost 2 percent year-on-year, is 10.12 percent less than the target for this time of the year.