Textile & apparel exports depict negative growth

31 Mar '08

2 min read

A recent study entailing details about textile and garment exports of China show that in the first two months of 2008, export price index of the industry increased by 10.15 percent which is higher than the previous two years.

However, the export volume which maintained a consistent growth since 2000, showed a negative growth of -1.78 percent in January and February 2008. This in turn resulted in a low growth rate of 8.19 percent. Export value on the other hand dropped by 10.58 percent from the annual increase of 2007.

Experts believe that a rise of 10 percent in the production cost of the textile industry has been a major reason behind this negative growth.

Combined factors like Renminbi appreciation, lowered tax rebate rate, labor law, rising cost of raw materials and other policy adjustments have taken its toll on the export volume and value of the textile industry.

Textile enterprises had no other alternative but to absorb the rise in prices. However, this is bound to result in a sharp fall in export volume because low prices are still the major factors that keep China alive in international competition.

EU, US, Japan and Hong Kong are recognized as key traditional markets for textile and apparel products of China accounting for about 60 percent of the total exports.

Trade with EU remained positive because of removal of quota. Export value increased 19.84 percent, integrated prices rose by 11.39 percent and export volume grew by 7.59 percent.

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