Export touched 4 billion milestone in April again after January. Merchandise shipment experiencing sluggish trend during last several months. Crossing 4 billion mark was frequent in the past. After July 2024 it touched the land mark only in January in current financial year. The current financial year’s export growth reached barely 2%.

As reported in The Daily Star, EPB informed that April receipts largely reflected payments for consignments shipped in January and February. According to them, it was before the war in the Middle East began and before domestic energy shocks severely affected manufacturers.

The Financial Express reported, there has been no meaningful rise in fresh orders or change in buying patterns, despite strong month-on-month performance across major sectors.

Industry insiders say merchandise exports had been in negative territory since March last year, mainly due to weak apparel shipments amid a global demand slowdown. Seeking anonymity, several leading apparel exporters have expressed surprise at the scale of growth, suspecting possible discrepancies in the official data. They say exporters remain under pressure due to the fragile global economy, affected by the Israel-US war with Iran.