The recent controversy over the export figures for apparel for first half of current fiscal is somewhat amusing. According to the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), the apparel exports from India in the April-September 2011 period have grown by 30% to $6.7 billion, which has, however, been contested by exporters, who have asked the Government to re-examine data. Exporters are indeed peeved with the data for exports to the US, the main market, where sales have slowed considerably. Otherwise, too, even the second biggest export destination i.e. Europe has either been canceling orders or asking Indian exporters to hold on the exports.

Premal Udani, Chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council, said, "The DGCIS figure has surprised us as well. We have requested the Government to review the figure. The picture is not so rosy as the figure states. For the whole FY 12, exports are expected to be up by 10-20%. The health of apparel industry is not so well. International buyers are picking up less volumes." A Sakhtivel, President of Tirupur Exporters' Association added, "In the knitwear category, there has been no growth in the last few months. Tirupur has been severely affected the Euro Zone crisis. European buyers have cancelled order. Some of them have even told the exporters to hold the goods meant for shipment. Though the US off-take is slow, the situation is better than Europe."

Export Performance

According to the data available, India's readymade garment exports moved up to $11.16 billion in April-March 20110-11, registering a growth of 4.23% when compared to April-March 2009-10. It is also observed that four months of May, June, July and November showed actual decline over corresponding months in the year 2009-10. The overall annual growth of 4.23% is anything, but cheerful.

The contested figure of $ 6.757 billion in the first six months of 2011-12 over the last year's figure of $ 5.099 billion does make the picture pleasant, even though there has been actually physical fall in the month of August, 2011. The growth of apparel exports during current fiscal works out to be 32.52%, but this figure has been disputed. The indignation over the "disputed" figures is understandable, as the latest information coming in shows that Tirupur exporters are curtailing their production by 10-15%. Reports suggest that some 1 lakh people in Tirupur have lost jobs in the last six moths and that the manufacturing units have also approached banks to restructure their loans and give them a moratorium of one year. According to A. Sakhtivel, "There has been a substantial reduction in workforce over the last six months. Almost 1 lakh people have lost jobs and we are not sure what will happen to the existing workforce, if this recessionary trend continues for long. The picture is not so bright though exporters are trying to make inroads in to Latin America, Japan and other newer markets."

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Here author has shared his views on Euro Crisis and its impact