Bangladesh's FY23 exports earn $55.55 bn; RMG sector earns $46.99 bn

Though the figure was 4.28 per cent less than the export target of $58 billion, it crossed $50 billion for the second consecutive fiscal. The country earned $52.08 billion from export earnings in fiscal 2021-22.

The low growth was due to the lukewarm demand, economic turmoil, geopolitical crises and inflationary pressures in the prime markets.

The readymade garments (RMG) sector, the highest export earner, earned $46.99 billion, registering a moderate YoY growth of 10.27 per cent. The sector earned $42.61 billion in the last fiscal.

Apart from the apparel sector, home textile, leather and leather goods sector, and jute and jute goods sector touched the milestone of $1 billion in export revenues.

Apart from the RMG sector, most notable export sectors like leather, jute, home textiles, agricultural products and engineering products saw negative growth in the fiscal.

Leather and leather goods ranked second after RMG in exports, though the sector registered a negative growth of 1.74 per cent to $1.22 billion—lower from $1.24 billion in the previous fiscal.

The country earned $5.03 billion from exports in June this year, seeing a narrow growth of 2.51 per cent over $4.9 billion in June last year.

Export of knitwear items registered a growth of 10.87 per cent to $25.73 billion, while woven garments saw a growth of 9.56 per cent to $21.25 billion.

Home textiles lost its earlier second position and earned $1.09 billion in FY23, fetching a negative growth of 32.47 per cent from $1.62 billion in FY22.

Jute and jute goods saw a negative growth of 19.4 per cent to $912.25 million in FY23—lower from $1.12 billion in FY22, Bangladesh media outlets reported.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)