Export of textile items remained flat in December
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s textile and clothing exports grew only 0.02 per cent to $1.035 billion in December year-on-year driven by value-added products, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday.
Export proceeds from the value-added products recorded growth for three consecutive months. The rise in export proceeds is also evident in rupee terms.
Last year, the government announced a textile policy that gives a 4pc rebate on the exports of readymade garments on a 10pc incremental increase over the preceding year, 2pc on home-textiles and 1pc on fabric. No support was announced on raw material or yarn exports.
Under this policy, the government paid out Rs2.5bn to exporters in the last fiscal year. This shows the policy worked to some extent and promoted exports of value-added textile products.
The government recently announced Rs180bn bailout package for the textile and clothing sectors to promote exports. In this package, the government also announced a subsidy on the export of raw materials and low-value added products.
One of the reasons cited for the textile package was the need for countering the rising cost of production. The package will be implemented from January 2017 to June 2018.
Product-wise details show that the export of readymade garments grew 9.23pc while that of knitwear increased 4.21pc in December. Exports of bed-wear went up 9.26pc, but those of towels fell 4.22pc in December.
In primary commodities, the export of cotton yarn witnessed a year-on-year decline of 3.38pc, cotton cloth 18.53pc, cotton carded 100pc and yarn other than cotton yarn 37.15pc.
Exports of made-up articles, excluding towels, witnessed growth of 2.71pc while those of tents, canvas and tarpaulin grew 74.68pc.
The export of raw cotton also recorded a year-on-year decline of 6.99pc. Art, silk and synthetic textile exports declined 16.44pc.
One reason for the rise in exports of value-added textile products is Pakistan’s preferential access to the 28-nation European Union under the GSP-Plus scheme.
In the six months to December, the value of exported textile and clothing products fell 1.65pc year-on-year to $6.15bn.
Overall export proceeds in July-Dec fell 3.82pc to $9.91bn. In April, the Ministry of Commerce announced a Strategic Trade Policy Framework, which remains to be implemented.
Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2017
