Exports fall 16% in May
Merchandise exports posted a 16.06 percent year-on-year fall to hit $4.07 billion in May this year, according to data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) today.
The May shipment is 23.75 percent below the monthly export target of $5.33 billion, according to the data.
Exports in the July-May period grew slightly, as it rose 2.01 percent year-on-year to $51.54 billion.
Until April of the current fiscal year, export grew 3.93 percent year-on-year.
In the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, the shipment of garments, which contributes more than 84 percent in the national export in a year, grew only 2.86 percent year-on-year to $43.85 billion, the EPB data also showed.
Export data comes couple of days after the remittance inflow shows a robust growth in May as the country's migrant workers sent more money home ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, which will be celebrated in the middle of June.
The downturn in exports, the main source of earnings for Bangladesh, paints a bleak outlook regarding recovery from the current economic challenges the country is facing, as the decline has eroded the gains in remittance earnings.
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