The country's merchandise export earnings maintained moderate growth in the first month of the current fiscal year (FY23), posting over 14.70 per cent rise to $3.98 billion year-on-year as a result of good performance of apparel shipments.
Bangladesh fetched $3.47 billion in July 2021, according to provisional data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) released Tuesday.
The overall export earnings also surpassed the set target by 1.65 per cent.
Since September last, bar May this year, the country's single-month export earnings have surpassed the four-billion mark.
Of the total $3.98 billion export earnings in July’22, the RMG sector fetched $3.36 billion, posting a 16.61 per cent growth year-on-year.
A dissection of the clothing-sector performance shows that the knitwear subsector earned $1.85 billion from exports, registering 11.80 per cent growth.
Earnings from woven garments export have amounted to $1.51 billion in the past eight months, up by 23.11 per cent.
Home-textile exports also recorded over 3.89 per cent growth to $95.95 million in the first month of this fiscal.
Meanwhile, the jute sector, which demonstrated a negative growth in the last fiscal, recorded a 5.17 per cent growth in July with $63.91 million in earnings.
Earnings from agricultural items, including vegetables, fruits and dry foods, witnessed a 34.89 per cent fall. The sector's aggregate earnings stood at $63.91 million during the period which was $98.15 million.
Leather and leather products witnessed over 9.82 per cent growth to $99.41 million last month against $90.52 million in earnings in July’21.
The country fetched $43.56 million from engineering products exports in July'22, which was $33.03 million last July.
Earnings from pharmaceutical exports stood at $13.17 million, marking a 28.23 per cent negative growth.
Export earnings from frozen and live fish decreased by 2.12 per cent to $36.03 million during the same period.
According to the EPB, export of plastic products witnessed over 44 per cent growth to $14.62 million.
munni_fe@yahoo.com