The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) yesterday unveiled the export data for the July-September period of fiscal year 2024-25 and officially acknowledged that there was a $3.16 billion export data mismatch in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

For proper policymaking, there is no alternative to reliable data

BBS must be overhauled to ensure that it provides accurate data

The country now holds 7.4% of global market garment share

Data correction is going on

Accurate data is a crucial input for taking effective policies and putting the economy on the right track. If the data is not correct or time-befitting, policies might be proved wrong. Then, development successes will be only on paper and will not reflect reality.

The government has initiated moves to correct the system to calculate national data in oder to avoid the repetition of the shock after the central bank reported a massive statistical mismatch linked to exports.

One of the main reasons for the $14 billion discrepancy in the export data was the Export Promotion Bureau’s (EPB) double counting of exported garment items made in factories inside export processing zones (EPZs), Salman F Rahman, the prime minister’s adviser on private industry and investment, said yesterday.

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) is taking more time than it usually does to release the export data for June apparently because of the shock following the central bank’s correction of overseas sales figures.

However, the amount, $5.72b, is 0.69% lower than the monthly target

In 2022-23, the mismatch between the actual realisation reported by BB and EPB shipment figure was $12.08 billion, the highest in at least eight years

Pharmaceutical exports from Bangladesh shrank 7 per cent year-on-year in fiscal 2022-23 due to the impacts of global economic crises and subsequent US dollar shortage in most underdeveloped countries.

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The growth of garment shipment to the US and the European Union declined in July-December as consumers in the two largest export destinations of Bangladesh have remained concerned about the persisting economic uncertainty for the raging Russia-Ukraine war.  

The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation has introduced 50 shuttle buses to carry passengers between Kuril and the venue of the 27th edition of the Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF), which will start on January 1.

Bangladesh’s earnings from vegetable exports dipped to six-year low in the July-October period of the current fiscal year as high air-freight rates and increased prices eroded the competitiveness of fresh produce.

Export earnings dropped 6.25 per cent year-on-year to $3.9 billion in September, the first fall in 14 months, as the cost-of-living crisis in the western countries took its toll on Bangladesh’s main foreign currency earning sector.  

Bangladesh recorded robust export earnings riding on the main export earner knitwear and woven garments in the first two months of the current fiscal year.  

A Tk 9.95 crore project of the commerce ministry aimed at expanding the country’s export basket and reducing import dependency has failed to meet its deadline for a second time due to the slow pace of implementation.

Garment exports to Bangladesh’s single largest destination, the USA, rose by 51.57 per cent year-on-year to $9.01 billion in the just concluded fiscal year.