'Inflation, monetary policy decelerate export growth'

Higher inflation and contractionary monetary policy emerge as major challenges to export growth, experts told a seminar on export diversification on Wednesday.
The national tariff policy needs to be revised to make it more 'exporter-friendly', according to them.
The seminar styled 'Economic Diversification and Global Market: Bangladesh's Opportunities and Way Forward' was hosted by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in the capital.
Foreign minister Dr Hasan Mahmud was present as the chief guest at the programme, presided over by BIISS Chairman AFM Gousal Azam Sarker.
Lawmaker Md Abul Kalam Azad, foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen, senior commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh and agriculture secretary Wahida Akhter also spoke.
BIISS research director and economist Dr Mahfuz Kabir presented a keynote at the event.
He said, "Inflation is the biggest problem in the global landscape. Despite this inflationary pressure, export from Bangladesh hasn't been hampered that much."
"It's a good thing. If inflation wasn't there, we could export in a bigger volume. So, the impact of global inflation affected the country in a different way."
Dr Kabir suggested giving priority to policy incentives for exporters.
He feels that the National Tariff Policy contains many aspects, which are regarded as anti-export bias.
Dr Kabir proposed to encourage both domestic and foreign entrepreneurs in order to produce goods for the domestic market through policy incentives.
Policy interest rates have gone up everywhere in the world and the same thing has happened here. It hurts the production of goods for export destinations, according to the economist.
He said the rise in inflation in the major export destinations like America and Europe also posed challenges to the country's export basket.
Highlighting the need for diversifying the export basket, he observes that reliance on a single sector also paves the way for buyers to exploit prices as they know the weakness.
Dr Kabir also recommended rewarding the entrepreneurs who are contributing to export diversification.
Meanwhile, foreign minister Dr Mahmud said the government was well aware of the geopolitical issues, noting that the geopolitical scenario was evolving.
This situation has created both opportunities and challenges, and the government is making decisions prudently, according to him.
He emphasised export diversification to boost export earnings and help the economy grow to achieve its development goals.
Dr Mahmud said value-added apparel, pharmaceutical products, plastic, leather, jute goods, shipbuilding and also skilled manpower were some of the areas of focus for export diversification.
"There is a lot of potential to increase agro-product exports, including mango, from Bangladesh."
Bangladesh has made tremendous progress over the last 15 years despite challenges from multiple fronts, including adverse impacts of climate change, he cited.

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