Bangladesh’s exports have shown an upward trend in recent months, indicating that exports are gradually recovering from the impact of the global financial crisis. Bangladesh’s garment exports account for about 80% of total exports. According to the current foreign orders and fabric usage in the garment industry, fabric usage doubled in September and October compared to the same period in 2008. The garment export situation will gradually improve. Because Bangladesh’s domestic garment production is still affected by shortages of natural gas and electricity supply and rising yarn prices, garment exports will not see an upward trend until February and March 2010. The Bangladesh Knitwear Producers and Exporters Association predicts that exports will still show negative growth in November. Although foreign demand is currently increasing, exports will not grow too fast due to the recent increase in raw material prices and production costs.
In October 2009, Bangladesh’s garment exports increased by 18% compared with the same period in 2008, reaching US$1.02 billion. However, average exports from July to October fell by 7% compared with the same period in 2008, and the decline was less than the 12% in the previous three months. The average export price of Bangladesh’s current fiscal year fell by 3% from July to October, of which the average export price of ready-made garments fell by 4.6%.
