Bangladesh’s export earnings declined by 3.49 per cent in July 2016 compared to July 2015. Major exports like readymade garments, home textiles, leather and leather products and footwear, agricultural products and frozen and live fish faced negative growth and thus pulled down the overall merchandise shipments.

Earnings from knitwear recorded a 4.45 per cent negative growth compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal. The earnings fell short of the set target by 16.68 per cent. Earnings from the woven sector witnessed 4.36 per cent negative growth. The earnings fell short of the target by 29.65 per cent.

Home textile export earnings declined by 18.22 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Earnings from jute and jute goods posted a 25.71 per cent growth. Export earnings from frozen and live fishes declined by 23.48 per cent. Agricultural products, leather and leather products, leather footwear and furniture recorded 5.85 per cent, 2.26 per cent, 4.31 per cent and 27.39 per cent negative growth.

Earnings from plastic products slightly grew by 0.96 per cent though it fell short of the target by 13.60 per cent.

The government has set a total export target for the current 2016-17 fiscal year at 37 billion dollars.