The country’s export earnings during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (2017-18) registered a moderate growth of 6.33 percent.According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), exports from the merchandise during the July-March period recorded at US$27.451 billion as against $25.81billion during the same period in last year.The continued positive growth is attributed to moderate performance of knitwear, woven garment, jute and jute made products, agricultural and frozen food. However, the leather and leather products continued its negative growth in March.Although the export earnings continued its moderate growth, the single month earnings in March this year fell by 1.38 percent to $3.05 billion against the $3.09 billion in March last year.Even the March export earnings fell short of target by 3.19 percent, said the EPB date released on Tuesday.Like the previous months, EPB data showed that the export earnings are also slightly lower than the July-March target of $27.55 billion.The data mentioned that the earnings from readymade garments (RMG) during the period stood at $22.83 billion, marking a 9.11 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the FY 2016-17. While export earnings from the woven grew by 6.75 per cent to $11.51 billion from $10.78 billion in the same period of the last fiscal.The knitwear export stood at $11.32 billion during the period, registering an 11.61 per cent growth over the earnings of $10.14 billion in the same period of the FY17.Exports from woven and knitwear garments exceeded the target by 4.03 per cent and 2.03 per cent respectively.Export earnings from jute and jute goods in the first nine months of the current fiscal increased by 11.91 per cent to $818.09 million from $731.02 million. Agricultural products registered a 15.46 per cent growth with earnings of $472.23 million in the same period of the FY18.Export earnings from home textile during the period also grew by 15.08 per cent to $669.87 million.Leather and leather product exports, however, witnessed a negative growth of 8.04 per cent to $848.78 million compared with that of $922.96 million in the same period of the FY17. Leather footwear export, however, increased by 6.20 per cent to $425.33 million during the period.Exports of frozen and live fish stood at $407.71 million, marking 6.57 per cent growth during the July-March period of current fiscal year.
