Bangladesh once again second biggest global RMG exporter: WTO

Bangladesh has retained the second position in global garment trade with 7.4 percent market share although the country's exports, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), was $9 billion less than the estimates of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

The WTO in its flagship "World Trade Statistics 2023" released on July 31 said Bangladesh exported garment items worth $38 billion in 2023, but the nation's public overseas trade promotion council, EPB, mentioned the amount to be $47.38 billion.

However, the EPB later corrected the figure while Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the export figure was inflated, as the customs department of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) counted the amount twice.

Globally, China remained the top garment exporter worldwide with the shipping of $165 billion worth of apparel items, holding 31.6 percent of the global market share, according to the WTO.

Vietnam is in the third position by exporting $31 billion worth of garment items in 2023 and grabbed 6 percent global market share.

Turkey with $19 billion exports stood fourth with 3.6 percent market share while India becomes the fifth largest garment exporter as per the data from the WTO by exporting $15 billion garments in 2023 with 3 percent market share.

Indonesia with 1.6 percent of the global garment market share exported goods worth $8 billion in 2023.

In 2023, world trade in goods and commercial services fell on average by 2 percent to $30.5 trillion, on a balance of payments basis, the WTO said.

Trade in goods declined by 5 percent whereas services trade took an opposite trajectory, increasing by 9 percent.

As a result, the share of goods in global trade decreased from 77.8 percent in 2022 to 75.3 percent in 2023 while the share of services reached 24.7 percent, up from 22.2 percent.

The global supply chain experienced volatility last year because of the severe fallouts of Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine war, higher inflationary pressure on the western consumers, labour unrest demanding the wage hike for the garment workers, Red Sea crisis and exorbitant rise in freight charge.