Following the increase in living cost due to the pressure of inflation, the United States has reduced the purchase of clothing, but Bangladesh continues to show strength in the export of clothing to America.
In the first eight months of this year (January-August), the country exported garments worth USD 6.64 billion.
The US Department of Commerce's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) statistics published on Wednesday showed such positive trend.
Despite the pandemic, Bangladesh had a booming situation in garment exports throughout the last year. The garment industry entrepreneurs of Bangladesh have never had such a good year.
In that sequence, the positive trend of Bangladesh’s clothing exports to various countries including the United States continued until August 2022. But in last September, after 13 months, there was a negative growth of 6.25 percent in the overall exports including clothing.
According to OTEXA data, the United States import of cloths from different countries of the world increased by 37.35 percent in the first eight months. Bangladesh is the third largest source of US apparel imports. In these eight months, the United States has imported garments worth USD 6.64 billion from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Director Mohiuddin Rubel told Bangladesh Post, “The US retail industry is recovering rapidly from the Covid-19 crisis. This has been reflected in the exports of Bangladesh till August 2022. That is why we can see a jump in our garment exports. But later in September our export has stumbled and we have witnessed a negative trend.”
Explaining the reason, Rubel said, “In the context of the disappointing global economy and rising inflation due to the shock of the Russia-Ukraine war, we do not foresee such a high growth in US imports in October and the following months. As Bangladesh’s apparel exports maintained positive growth till August this year, this will be reflected in US imports in September. So, we can see some increase in US imports from Bangladesh in September. But it is feared that there may be a negative growth in our garment exports to the United States from October.”
