REFAYET ULLAH MIRDHA

Apparel exporters are anticipating that the next six months will be challenging for the garment industry in Bangladesh as they receive fewer work orders from international buyers amid inflationary pains and depressed customer sentiments.

They are, however, hopeful about a rebound from December as the impact of a hike in bank interest rate in Bangladesh would ease and consumer prices would maintain their downward trend in the western countries.

“I don’t see any possibility of a brighter prospect for garment exports in the next six months because the economies in the European Union and the US are yet to start performing strongly,” said Md Fazlul Hoque, managing director of Plummy Fashions Ltd, a Narayanganj-based knitwear manufacturer.

The EU and the US, the main export destinations for Bangladesh, account for about 85 per cent of the country’s apparel shipment.

One encouraging sign is consumer prices, which surged to a multi-decade high last year owing to the escalation of energy prices fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine war, are on the decline in the key markets.

In the US, for instance, inflation was 4.9 per cent in the 12 months to April, the first time it fell

below 5 per cent in two years, way lower than the four-decade high of 9.1 per cent seen in June last year.