RMG export prices fall by 16% in 8 months: BGMEA

Export prices of Bangladeshi garment items fell by 8 percent to as high as 16 percent year-on-year in the last eight months thanks to a fall in demand among consumers because of high inflationary pressure.

Not only the prices of apparels shipped from Bangladesh have fallen, but also the export of garments witnessed a falling trend in volume in major markets, according to data from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

For instance, apparel import from the US declined by 7 percent and from the European Union it experienced a 13 percent fall in the July-April period of 2023-24 fiscal year, the BGMEA data also said.

Garment export increased by 4.97 percent year-on-year in the 10 months to April this year, down from the 9.09 percent year-on-year growth posted in the same period previous year.

However, the bank interest rate rose by 15 percent and the cost of production by 50 percent in the last five years, BGMEA President SM Mannan Kochi said at a meeting with the reporters of different print, televisions and online media outlets at Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka today.

The cost of production has increased because of price hikes of gas, power and wages of the workers, he said.

Kochi also said the government's decision of not allowing making investment outside of the export processing zones (EPZs) and the special economic zones (SEZs) will have a negative impact on the inflow of investment in the country.

He urged the government for reviewing the decision and giving go-ahead to making investment and setting up factories outside of the SEZs and EPZs so new investments come and new factories are set up.