Bangladesh earned $4.165 billion (416 crore 50 lakh dollars) from exports in September. In the same period of 2020, export earnings were $3.018 billion (301 crore 80 lakh dollars).

After July, the first month of the current 2020-21 fiscal year, export earnings also rose in August and September. People in the sector say businesses in countries around the world have begun to reopen, and export earnings have risen as cancelled and postponed orders start to return.

According to Bangladesh Bank data, September export growth was 38 per cent. In the first three months of the new fiscal year (July to September), export earnings were $11.022 billion (1,102 crore 20 lakh dollars), against $9.897 billion (989 crore 70 lakh dollars) in the same period a year earlier, growth of 11.37 per cent for the first quarter. In August alone, Bangladesh earned $2.9671 billion (296 crore 71 lakh dollars) from goods exports, 4.32 per cent more than in August last year.

Dr Zaid Bakht, a researcher at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), said: "On one hand old orders have come back, and on the other the coronavirus pandemic has come somewhat under control around the world. That has pushed export earnings up."

About 85 per cent of the country's export earnings come from the readymade garment sector. Because of the coronavirus, the sector's exports began falling in March, collapsed in April and kept falling in May. From June, however, the sector has been trying to recover, and that continued in July, August and September.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.