Bangladesh sees robust rise in first quarter exports

Bangladesh's export earning in the first quarter of the current 2013-14 fiscal year (July 2013-June 2014) grew 21.24 percent year on year to 7.63 billion U.S. dollars, official data showed Wednesday. Of total earnings, Bangladesh's Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data showed, the South Asian country's income from ready-made garment items including knitwear and woven stood at 6.203 billion U.S. dollars during July-September period of the current fiscal year. In the first quarter of the current 2013-14 year, the EPB data showed, knitwear garment export grew 24.43 percent to 3,160.20 million dollars while woven garments increased 23.89 percent to 3, 043.69 million dollars, comparing with the same period of last fiscal. Propelled by an impressive performance of the major ready-made garment export sector, the EPB data showed export income for the last month was 1,900.89 million U.S. dollars, 36.26 percent higher than that in the same month a year ago. Bangladesh set its export target in 2013-14 fiscal year at 30. 50 billion U.S. dollars including 24.147 billion U.S. dollars from ready-made garment products. Bangladesh's export income in the past 2012-13 (July 2012-June 2013) fiscal year grew 11.18 percent year on year to reach 27.018 billion U. S. dollars, falling short of the projected target by 3. 51 percent.