Exports declined 7.63 percent year-on-year to $1.96 billion in October due to a slowdown in apparel exports, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau.

Garment exports fell 3.5 percent to $7.76 billion in October compared with the same month last year.

The contribution of garment items to national exports is more than 80 percent, so if the country's main export earner is affected, it impacts overall exports.

BGMEA President Atiqul Islam attributed the fall in garment exports to the dull season for apparel shipments that started in May and the cautiousness of the retailers about placing work orders with facto-

ries housed in shared buildings.

Twenty percent of the garment factories in Bangladesh are housed in shared buildings, according to data from Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. The number of such factories is declining, as owners are gradually shifting their production units from Dhaka to purpose-made buildings in adjacent areas, Islam said. The cost of production has increased significantly for different reasons, but the product prices did not increase accordingly, he said.

The supply of power to industrial units has improved, but they are still suffering from inadequate gas supply, he said.

Backward linkage industries for the garment sector are heavily dependent on the adequate supply of gas, Islam said.

"I hope exports will rebound from November as sales during Christmas in the West increases." “We need an effective one stop service centre from the government to address our problems to increase exports," he said. Overall exports declined 0.97 percent to $9.67 billion in the July-October period compared with the same period last year.

Export figures were also 7.58 percent below the periodic target of $ 10.44 billion in July-October, according to EPB. The overall export figure was 19.78 percent below the target of $2.44 billion in October against the same month last year.