Bangladesh exports fall by 16.52% in April

Bangladesh’s exports extended its losing streak for the second month in a row by plunging 16.52 per cent from a year earlier in April, relevant data revealed on Wednesday.

The country’s overall outbound shipments reached $3.9 million in April, compared to $4.7 million from a year ago, according to data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) under the Ministry of Commerce.

The country’s exports also fell to $4.64 billion in March, down 2.49 per cent from the same month a year earlier.

For the first 10 months of the financial year from July 2022 to June 2023, however, the EPB data showed exports rose 5.38 per cent to $45.68 billion.

The overall export growth was largely attributed to the demand for ready-made garments.

The EPB said shipments of ready-made garments, comprising knitwear and woven items, totalled $38.58 billion in the first 10 months of this financial year, up 9.09 per cent.

Bangladesh saw exports soar more than 34 per cent to 52.08 billion dollars in the last fiscal year, official data showed.

The country’s earnings from garment export, which has made up more than three-fourths of the country’s annual income since the beginning of this decade, surged to $42.61 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year, according to the EPB.