The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The new year has started with optimistic output in the major sectors of export that had been going slow since the first-half of the year 2007. Exports of readymade garments, knitwear and leather are increasing both in volume and income, exporters said.

Raw jute, footwear, jute goods, hand loom, terry towel and leather and leather products are also doing better in the recent times. Exports in these sectors have been inching up but still fell short of their respective targets, official data and figures show.

The new trend started by registering US$ 941 million export in October last with an eight per cent growth over the same month in 2006, the latest figures released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) says.

"It is a sign of recovery from the previous slowdown," an official of EPB said.

The October exports, however, fell 11 per cent short of the month's target of US$ 1,060 million, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) figures released on Tuesday.

During the first four months (July-October) period of fiscal 2007-08, the exports were still 16 per cent below the period's target and about 3 per cent below the performance of the corresponding period of last fiscal year. The export earnings suffered a setback in the first quarter of the current fiscal year as it dropped more than 5 per cent to US$ 3,077 million from the performance of the same period last fiscal year. It showed minus 20 per cent growth in the first month (July) of the fiscal.

Trade experts said there were signs of export recovery lately and projected the performance would be even better during the second half of 2007-08.

Earlier, apparel industry exporters expected that the export figures would show some increasing trend from October as raw material consumption for export products increased since the month.

In July-October period, both the value and volume of exports declined respectively by 1.23 per cent and 1.40 per cent.

The government set an export target of US$ 14.5 billion for the fiscal 2007-08 with a growth rate of 19.07 per cent over 2006-07.

EPB figures show earnings from main export sector suffered setback during the July-October period as woven garments fall 20 per cent short of the target to US$ 1,431 million and declined 9 per cent from the same period in previous year.

Knitwear also dropped 12 per cent from the target to US$ 1,591 million and about one per cent from the same period of last fiscal.

Earnings from frozen food exports fell 11 percent short of the target to US$ 177 million and recorded 10 per cent decline from the same period in previous fiscal.

Other major items falling short of the target and previous year's performance were engineering products, handicrafts, electronics, chemical products, computer services and textile fabrics.

Export earnings from petroleum byproducts, vegetables, tea, ceramic products, cut flower and agro-processed foods surpassed both the period's target and last year's performance.