Bangladesh fetches $16.20 bln from merchandise export in 2009-10 fiscal

Bangladesh's merchandise export earnings in the immediate past 2009-10 fiscal year (July 2009-June 2010) grew 4.11 percent, government data showed Tuesday, riding out the global market recession well.

According to Bangladesh's Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, the South Asian country fetched 16.20 billion U.S. dollars from exports in the last fiscal year.

With 1.42 billion U.S. dollars export earning in June, up an impressive 21.24 percent over the same period a year ago, the country's overall export earnings in the last fiscal year, however, fell short of target by 7.93 percent, it showed.

The growth though moderate in overall export earnings in the last fiscal year came as garment export marked rise after months of fall in the wake of global market slowdown.

Export earnings from garments, including knitwear and woven, in 2009-2010 fiscal year stood at 12.50 billion U.S. dollars, an about 77.1 percent of the total export income of Bangladesh during the same period of the year.

In the last fiscal year, according to the EPB, knitwear garment export grew 0.84 percent to 6.48 billion U.S. dollars while woven garments increased 1.60 percent to 6.01 billion U.S. dollars, comparing with the same period of last fiscal, EPB data showed.

Knitwear garments export, up to July-May period of last fiscal, fell 0.93 percent to 5.76 billion dollars while woven garments dropped 0.09 percent to 5.39 billion U.S. dollars.

A senior EPB official on condition of anonymity said, "The rise in June export earnings hinted that the shocks of the global economic downturn finally be abating."

Bangladesh's export earnings in the first quarter (July- September) of the current fiscal year, recorded a big fall of 11. 66 percent to 3.87 billion U.S. dollars.

The slump in Bangladesh's nine months' merchandise export earnings eased to 0.80 percent in March, 2010 comparing to the same period of 2009, the government data showed, raising strong hopes of recovery from the shocks of the global economic downturn.

However, the EPB statistics showed that earnings from some other major exportable items, like raw jute and jute goods, home textiles,leather and leather products and footwear, were also on rise in June compared to the previous months.

Bangladesh set export target in 2009-10 fiscal at 17.60 billion U.S. dollars. The country's export growth dipped 10.31 percent to 15.57 billion dollars in the previous 2008-09 fiscal year (July 2008- June 2009) while the export growth was 15.87 percent in 2007- 08 fiscal year.

Source: Xinhua