Business

Bangladesh exports soar 36 % on garment sales in September

Despite the deadly incidents in Bangladesh, its garment exports rose 36.26% in September from a year earlier to US$ 2.59 billion, boosted by stronger clothing sales. In the first quarter of the current financial year, exports rose 21 % to US$7.63 billion from a year earlier, the Export Promotion Bureau said. Garment exports surged 24 % to US$ 6.2 billion in July-September.

Duty-free access to Western markets and low wages have helped make Bangladesh the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China, with 60 % of the clothes made there going to Europe and 23 % to the United States. But the US$ 20 billion industry, which supplies many Western brands, has been under a spotlight after a series of deadly incidents including the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in April that killed more than 1,130 people.