FY2024: Export earnings fall 16% in May

Bangladesh’s exports earnings last month fell 16.06% year-on-year, slowing down the fiscal year 2024’s annual export growth and constraining hopes of shoring up foreign currency reserve.

The export earnings were $4.07 billion in May, up from $4.84 billion in May 2023. The fall slowed down the year-to-date export growth of the fiscal year ending 30 June (FY 2024) to just 2.01%, from 3.93% recorded in April.

That translates as 3.93% export growth in first ten months of the fiscal year from the same period in the previous fiscal year (FY 2023), which unfortunately fell to 2.01% for the first eleven months, data from the Export Promotion Bureau showed.

The fall in export earnings undercuts hopes of shielding the central bank’s foreign currency reserves from the ongoing depletion and limits the gains from the robust remittance inflows posted in May due to the upcoming Eid festival.

Export earnings from almost all sectors, save readymade garment, have fallen in the first eleven months of the current fiscal year from the same period of the previous fiscal year.