Bangladesh's exports bounce back in Jan after Dec slip

Bangladesh exports earned $3.31 billion in January, a 4 percent rise from a year earlier, driven by a surge in shipments of garments, government data showed on Monday.

In December, exports fell 3 percent from a year earlier.

For July-January, the first seven months of the 2016-17 financial year, exports increased 4.4 percent to $20 billion from a year earlier, the Export Promotion Bureau said.

Readymade garments, comprising knitwear and woven items, totalled $16.4 billion, up 4 percent from the same period the previous year.

Garment exports, the major foreign-exchange earner for the South Asian nation of 160 million, rose nearly 20 percent in January from the previous month.

Low wages in Bangladesh and trade deals with Western markets have helped make it the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China.

Exports in the 2015/16 financial year that ended in June hit a record $34.24 billion, up 9.7 percent from the previous year.

The government has set an export target of $37 billion for the current financial year, with garments earning an expected $30 billion.