Bangladesh registered almost 40 percent growth in exports in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period a year ago.
According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the country exported goods worth $12.18 billion during July-January of fiscal 2010-11, up from $8.7 billion during the same period of 2009-10, marking a 39.85 percent rise.
In January alone, exports grew 34.33 percent to $1.92 billion, compared to the same month of the previous year, according to government data.
The EPB report shows exports of major products — knitwear, woven, jute and jute goods, home textile, frozen foods, shrimp, leather goods — have grown significantly during July-January period.
In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the knitwear sector earned $5.07 billion, which is a 43.22 percent rise from the same period a year ago. Woven garment exports grew 39.09 percent to $4.38 billion, compared to the same-year-ago-period.
The shipbuilding sector logged highest growth in percentage, rising at 1,386.78 percent.
At the same time, products such as tea, chemical, bicycle, furniture, engineering products, petroleum by-products and pharmaceuticals showed negative growth.
However, EPB set a target to earn $18.5 billion for the current fiscal year, which is 14.16 percent more than the actual earnings last year.
During 2009-10, the total export earnings were $16.2 billion against a target of $17.6 billion, which was 4.11 percent higher than the 2008-2009 earnings.
