BGMEA reveals that the Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a significant decline in the country’s income from exports of its apparel. Earnings declined year-on-year by 18.45 per cent to $27.83 billion in the outgoing fiscal year, according to the data. It is $6.3 billion less than the 2018-19 fiscal period and falls behind the target set for fiscal 2019-20 by $10.37 billion. The target was $38.20 billion for the immediate past fiscal year. In fiscal 2018-19, Bangladesh exported $34.13 billion worth of clothes.
The earnings in June were $2.12 billion, which is 11.43 percent lower than a year ago but 72.4 percent higher than the previous month. In April of this year, the sector witnessed a record low in shipments. The textile sector ‘s earnings exceeded just $0.37 billion, the lowest receipt since the industry started taking shape four decades ago.
Apparel receipts, which usually account for 84 percent of national exports, were lower mainly due to two factors fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic. Across the Western world, thousands of grocery stores were shut down mainly, and, second, factories across Bangladesh were shut down because of the pandemic.
