Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s outbound shipments witnessed sharp fall in March this year due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The country’s export earnings in March declined 18.29 per cent year-over-year to $2.73 billion as the Covid-19 pandemic starts taking toll on its outbound shipments, said a commerce ministry official quoting the latest data of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
However, export earnings during July-March of this fiscal year declined by 6.24 per cent to $28.97 billion, which was $30.90 billion a year ago, according to the EPB data, released on Wednesday.
EPB data shows, garments sector, which accounts for over 80 per dent of total exports, witnessed a 7.12 per cent decline to $24.10 billion during July- March, the first nine months of the current fiscal year. Knitwear products earned $11.95 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year, posting a 6.61 per cent year-on-year fall, while woven garments fetched $12.14 billion, showing a 7.61 per cent fall against the same period of last year, according to the data.
Among other major sectors, agricultural product’ earnings remained flat and stood at $722 million, while frozen and live fish earnings declined by three per cent to $402 million against $419 million last year.
Leather and leather goods, the second largest exporting sector, saw a 10.78 per cent fall to $688.51 million in the July-March period.
However, export earnings from the pharmaceuticals sector rose by 6.5 per cent to $106.22 million, and plastic goods declined by 4.57 per cent to $83 million during the nine-month period.
Specialized textile sector saw a close to 12 per cent negative growth to $99 million, while home textile products fell by 7.59 per cent to $598 million.
Jute and jute goods, the third largest export-earning sector, registered a sharp 23.49 per cent growth to $775.63 million during the period.
