Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh's exports to the global market reached an impressive $48 billion in the fiscal year 2024-25, registering a robust growth of 8.58 percent compared to the previous fiscal year.

In the corresponding period of FY2023-24, the country's export earnings stood at $44 billion.

The data, released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) on Wednesday, paints a generally positive picture of the nation's export performance over the last fiscal year, even as it highlights a notable dip in June's earnings.

Sectorial Performance: A Mixed Bag

Throughout FY2024-25, several key sectors demonstrated significant growth:

Garment (RMG) sector: Led the growth with an 8.84 percent increase.

Plastic products: Showed the highest growth at 16.21 percent.

Agricultural products: Grew by 2.52 percent.

Home textiles: Saw a modest increase of 2.42 percent.

However, some sectors experienced negative growth:

Jute products: Declined by 4.10 percent.

Glass products: Faced a sharp contraction of 38 percent.

June Exports Witness Decline Due to Holidays and Shutdowns:

Despite the overall annual growth, Bangladesh's export earnings in June experienced a more than 7.5 percent decline, largely attributed to a combination of the long Eid-ul-Adha holiday and a two-day port shutdown at the month's end due to National Board of Revenue (NBR) activities.

According to the EPB report, Bangladesh's goods export earnings in June amounted to $3.33 billion, a decrease from $3.61 billion recorded in the same month of the previous fiscal year.

For context, Bangladesh's goods export earnings in May stood at $4.74 billion, compared to $4.25 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. In April, export earnings were $3.92 billion.