July 31, 2007	Tuesday	Rajab 15, 1428

DHAKA, July 30: Bangladesh's exports rose by nearly 15.7 per cent to a record $12.18 billion in the year ended June despite months of political and labour unrest, officials said Monday.

Textiles led the record growth as exports of T-shirts, jeans and other clothing items grew by more than 16 percent to 9.2 billion dollars, data released by the country's Export Promotion Bureau said.

“Once again textiles led the way but exports of frozen food, engineering, leather, agro-processed food and light engineering products have also done well,” an export official said.

“It seems that the political turmoil and the labour unrest hardly had any impact on the exports,” he added.

Bangladesh was rocked last year by months of violent street protests and nationwide strikes over vote-rigging allegations.

—AFP