Bangladesh’s apparel exports continued the gaining trend in the month of December 2017 as well, back from the slump it experienced in the middle of last year.
In December, apparel exports contributed to over 83 percent of the total combined exportsfrom Bangladesh, as per the latest statistics released by Export Promotion Bureau on January 4, 2018.
In total, the garment industry fetched US $2.81 billion in the month of December, up from what was US $2.52 billion in November 2017, marking an 11 percent increase. In October 2017, the exports amounted to US $2.29 billion.
December’s apparel exportstook the total to US $14.77 billion for this fiscal year so far, thereby surpassing the July-December (2017) strategic target of US $14.37 billion by 2.76 percent. In the July-December perspective, December fetched 7.75 percent more than what it did in the similar time frame in FY 2016-17.
In December, however, woven garments came out on top at US $ 1.46 billion, 51 per cent, of the total apparel export share. Meanwhile, knitwear fetched US $1.35 billion. Back in November 2017, both knitwear and woven amounted to roughly around US $1.25 billion.
In September 2017, Bangladesh’s exports slumped significantly on the stretch of holidays and slowdown in exports of the apparel division. Then, the apparel export amounted to US $1.62 billion –the combined output of the knitwear and woven segments.
According to the data released, the overall export performance of Bangladesh stood at US $3.35 billion – what is 1.85 percent lower when compared to the target of US $3.41 billion. On a year-to-year basis, December 2016 fetched total export earnings of US $ 3.09 billion, marking an8.4 percent change in December 2017.