Services exports declined 5.56% in FY20 | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
June 10, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2025
Services exports declined 5.56% in FY20

Economy

Jasim Uddin
17 August, 2020, 10:35 pm
Last modified: 18 August, 2020, 12:18 am

Related News

  • RMG-like support can boost annual leather shipment to $5b by 2030: Exporters
  • Increase budget for agro product processing, storage to boost exports: Experts
  • At China's largest trade fair, exporters say US markets are 'frozen'
  • RMG exports to major markets see double-digit growth in Jul-Feb
  • Exports grow by 11% in July-February

Services exports declined 5.56% in FY20

The decline was 17 percent in June this year, lower than in the same month last year, going down from $507 million to $416 million

Jasim Uddin
17 August, 2020, 10:35 pm
Last modified: 18 August, 2020, 12:18 am
Services exports declined 5.56% in FY20

Like manufacturing goods, export performance of the services sector declined in the last fiscal year, bringing total earnings down by 5.56 percent compared to a year before.

Bangladesh earned $6,132 million by selling services abroad in the 2019-20 fiscal year, which was $6,493 million in the previous year, according to the full-year provisional figures released by the Export Promotion Bureau.

The decline was 17 percent in June this year than in the same month last year, going down from $507 million to $416 million.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Services export accounted for about 15 percent of total export proceeds of $39.8 billion from goods and services in the last fiscal year that ended in June.

Total exports amounted to a little over $47 billion in 2018-19 fiscal year.    

Though the overall figure dropped, earnings from government services, the single largest source of earnings in the services sector, performed better than the previous year.

The government earned $2,935 million in the July-June period of FY20 from sales of services to diplomatic missions and international organisations, as well as from office maintenance.

The amount was up by 3.4 percent from the previous year's earnings from the same source.

Transportation, construction, travel, education and tourism, insurance and banking services, and computer are among the 12 categories of services in the services sector basket.

Though insignificant in amount, earnings from insurance service jumped by 1,064 percent compared to last year, reaching $7.1 million.

Personal, cultural and recreational services fetched 86 percent more than the last fiscal year's amount.

Information, computer, financial and business services are few areas which brought more earnings from abroad in the last fiscal than a year back.

A total of $276 million came from computer services – software, data processing, and consultancy, up from $240 million in the previous year.

Construction services earned $263 million, 39 percent down from the previous year and 70 percent less than the target.

Foreign students and tourists are among the buyers of personal services that brought in $319 million, 13 percent less than the previous year.

Transportation, including sea, air, rail and road transport, saw 13 percent decline in proceeds, with the three major modes performing worse than last year.

The decline has been attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic that stalled or slowed most activities of individuals and businesses. Movement of transports stalled, and that is why earnings from transportation services declined.

"Limited capacity and poor quality of services restrict the scope of countries like Bangladesh to compete with developed countries in the trade of services, which requires high skill training, research and innovation," said Ali Ahmed, chief executive officer of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI).

The institute conducted a survey of six products in the services sector with support from the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Enhanced Integrated Framework, and found that Bangladesh needs to build capacity to derive benefits from the relaxed WTO rules for trade in services. These relaxed rules apply to the world's less developed economies," Ali said.

"We need improvements in areas like linguistic skills. We need to enhance productivity, diversify products and improve quality of services," the BFTI chief executive said.

Remittance earnings are not included in services sector export earnings, said Dr MA Razzaque, research director at the Policy Research Institute.  

The services sector's export performance has not fallen like that of goods as its lion's share has come from the government goods and services, he said. 

"Transportation services have been affected largely because of the drastic fall in goods export earnings during the peak of the pandemic," said Razzaque, also a former professor of economics at the University of Dhaka. 

Computer services, including software, data processing and consultancy, have enjoyed a good growth and this shows the demand for services in this sector remained unchanged in the last fiscal year, he said.

"But why earnings in the telecom sector dropped is difficult to evaluate," he added.

International call, software development and e-services that bring money from overseas is the export of the ICT sector, said Syed Almas Kabir, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services.

"The ICT sector could not achieve its export target due to Covid-19. However, the pandemic has created prospects for some new opportunities in the near future for this sector."   

Kabir hopes that in the current fiscal year, this sector will be able to reach the export target.

Top News

services / exports

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus leaves for a four-day visit to the United Kingdom from the Dhaka airport on 9 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    CA Yunus leaves for UK; discussion expected on renewable energy investment, laundered money
  • Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters
    Trump defends sending National Guard to LA as California governor to sue administration
  • California Governor Gavin Newsom. File Photo: REUTERS/Fred Greaves
    California Governor Newsom to sue Trump over National Guard deployment amid LA protests

MOST VIEWED

  • On left, Abdullah Hil Rakib, former senior vice president (SVP) of BGMEA and additional managing director of Team Group; on right, Captain Md Saifuzzaman (Guddu), a Boeing 787 Dreamliner pilot for Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Photos: Collected
    Ex-BGMEA SVP Abdullah Hil Rakib, Biman 787 pilot Saifuzzaman drown in boating accident in Canada
  • A photo showing the former president on his return to Dhaka today (9 June). 
Source: Collected
    Former president Abdul Hamid returns to Bangladesh from Thailand
  • File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar
    Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus leaves for a four-day visit to the United Kingdom from the Dhaka airport on 9 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    CA Yunus leaves for UK; discussion expected on renewable energy investment, laundered money
  • Inside the aid ship stormed by Israeli forces on 9 June 2025. Photo: BBC
    Israeli forces stormed aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg bound for Gaza: Freedom Flotilla Coalition
  • Enhanced surveillance at Ctg airport amid rising global Covid-19 cases
    Enhanced surveillance at Ctg airport amid rising global Covid-19 cases

Related News

  • RMG-like support can boost annual leather shipment to $5b by 2030: Exporters
  • Increase budget for agro product processing, storage to boost exports: Experts
  • At China's largest trade fair, exporters say US markets are 'frozen'
  • RMG exports to major markets see double-digit growth in Jul-Feb
  • Exports grow by 11% in July-February

Features

File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

23h | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

2d | Bangladesh
Illustration: TBS

Unbearable weight of the white coat: The mental health crisis in our medical colleges

5d | Panorama
(From left) Sadia Haque, Sylvana Quader Sinha and Tasfia Tasbin. Sketch: TBS

Meet the women driving Bangladesh’s startup revolution

5d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

US and China to meet in London for trade talks

US and China to meet in London for trade talks

12h | TBS World
The forbidden point on Cox's Bazar beach is like a death trap

The forbidden point on Cox's Bazar beach is like a death trap

14h | TBS Today
Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg

Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg

16h | TBS World
Which way will the anti-immigration campaign in Los Angeles turn?

Which way will the anti-immigration campaign in Los Angeles turn?

16h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net