DHAKA: Bangladesh's overall export earnings amounted to $2.9 billion in the first four months of fiscal 2004-2005, growing by 19 percent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Xinhua reports.

Latest data from the commerce ministry shows that export earnings of knitwear and woven garments amounted to $2.3 billion dollars, accounting for 78.7 percent of total export earnings during the July-October period.

Earnings from frozen food, raw jute, bicycle and textile fabrics declined during the current fiscal over the same period of the previous fiscal.

Earnings from frozen foods amounted to $99 million, down by 32 percent.

Export performance of jute goods, engineering products, leather, footwear, electronics and petroleum by-products improved over last year but trailed their respective targets.

Chemical products, home textiles, ceramic tableware, tea, handicrafts and agricultural products exports recorded a growth over last year's performance and also crossed their targets in the four-month period.

Export earnings during October was $560 million, missing the monthly target by 6.9 percent. This was mainly due to floods, according to commerce ministry officials.

The Asian Development Bank in its latest economic outlook update for Bangladesh predicted that the combined effects of the multi-fibre arrangement phase-out at the end of 2004 and flood-related damage might halve export growth in textiles and clothing in fiscal 2004-2005.

The bank projected that overall export growth might fall steeply to seven percent in the current fiscal, compared with 16 percent in the previous fiscal as textile and clothing account for over 75 percent of total exports.

The export target for the current fiscal has been fixed at $8.56 billion, 15 percent up over the previous year's mark.

Courtesy Indo-Asian News Service