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Bangladesh eyes US$57.50 billion in total export earnings in the current fiscal on the back of 12.44-percent growth in merchandise shipment to $50.0 billion, largely banking on clothing as before.
The current interim government's trade wing unveiled Sunday the export target for the fiscal year of 2024-25, correcting inflated past export-earning figures.
The growth projection banks, as usual, on the largest foreign-currency-earning sector -- readymade garments -- as the government eyes RMG earnings growth by nearly 12 per cent.
The Export Promotion Bureau has set a target of US$40.48 billion out of the total $50 billion in export earnings from the RMG sector with an 11.99-percent growth in the 2024-25 fiscal. Knitwear and woven items have to earn US$21.7 billion and US$18.78 billion respectively.
The state-owned export promoter also revised its earnings for the last fiscal year with the value downsized to US$44.47 billion -- a 4.22-percent decline from the earnings in the fiscal 2022-23.
It also downgraded the amount to US$46.43 billion for the fiscal year of 2022-23.
The EPB came up with the trade statistics in a meeting held Sunday with finance and commerce adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed three months after the central bank disclosed a big mismatch in export figures the EBP published.
It had paused in publishing export data since June.
Before identification of the discrepancies, the EPB had prepared an export-earning figure of US$55.28 billion and US$55.56 billion for the past fiscal years of 2023-24 and 2022-23 respectively.
A total of US$19.83 billion lesser export earnings figured out during the last two fiscal years, according to the EPB recount.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Ahmed said, "We have set an export-growth target of 12 per cent for the current fiscal and expect that this growth is achievable."
The target has been set taking the overall situation into consideration, he said, adding that measures would be taken to reduce dependence on one or two products and encourage diversification, especially for those that are potential.
The government also set US$ 7.50 billion worth of export earnings from services sector, taking the overall earnings to US$57.50 billion at the end of current fiscal, sources said.
Meeting sources said the EPB revised two fiscal years' export data based on data that recorded multiple entries and were revised by the National Board of Revenue (NBR). And the revised account deducted multiple entries.
According to the revised data of EPB, the RMG sector fetched US$36.15 billion in the last fiscal, recording a 5.22-percent negative growth. In fiscal 2022-23, the sector earnings stood at US$38.14 billion.
Leather and leather goods recorded 11.6-percent fall to reach US$1.04 billion in the past fiscal.
Earnings from jute and jute goods fetched US$855.23 million, marking a 6.17-percent decline, while live and frozen fishes recorded 10.71-percent decline to US$376.68 million during July to June period of last fiscal.
Agricultural sector, however, recorded 16.59-percent growth in the last fiscal earning US$964.34 million, according to EPB data.