Dhaka: Country’s export earnings in the first seven months (July-Jan) of the current fiscal year witnessed an 8.26 percent growth totalling $ 19269.53 million due to the moderate performance of knitwear, woven garment, jute and jute-made goods, agricultural and leather products.

The single-month export performance for January was also 10.41 percent higher with $ 3185.63 million than the strategic target of $ 3029 million.

According to the data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) on Monday, export earnings during the July-January period of the last fiscal year totalled $ 17799.36 million.

The total export earnings during the last fiscal (FY15) stood at $ 31,208.94 million.

According to the EPB figures of the July-January period of the current fiscal, knitwear export maintained its positive trend fetching $ 7601.75 million, which showed a 5.91 percent growth over the same period of the last fiscal while woven garment accounted for $ 8159.53 million having a growth of 12.29 percent.

During the seven-month period, the export of home textiles fetched $ 421.22 million with a fall of 6.44 percent, while leather footwear $ 297.03 million, primary commodities $ 634.17 million; frozen foods, including frozen fish, shrimps and others $ 331.81 million; and agricultural products $ 302.36 million.

The export from engineering equipment registered a healthy growth of 24 percent during the period fetching $ 317.09 million, followed by export of petroleum byproducts with an astonishing 577.46 percent growth ($ 208.32 mn).

Of the other major performing commodities, fruit exports totalled $ 17.73 million with a negative growth of 33.27 percent; cement, salt and stone $ 1.29 million; while tea export accounted for $ 1.29 million with a negative growth of 42.67 percent.

The export trend for leather products except leather and plastic products maintained their uptrend during the July-January period of the current fiscal.

Leather exports totalled $ 161.91 million, while leather products $ 204.08 million with an eye-catching growth of 56 percent; cotton and cotton products together earned $ 59.25 million; plastic products $ 51.73 million; and rubber $ 14.25 million.

The export of jute and jute goods maintained their positive trend during the July-January period of the current fiscal fetching $ 494.52 million, registering 1.04 percent fall. Raw jute exports fetched $ 83.43 million with 27.39 percent rise; while jute yarn and twine accounted for $ 301.38 million and other items some $ 37.05 million.

The export of jute sacks and bags showed a fall of 26.67 percent during the period as it totalled $ 72.66 million.