Pakistan’s textile exports saw a major 20% drop, falling to $1.31 billion in May from $1.64 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year, as per provisional data released by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Saturday.
It showed that the country’s textile exports in the first eleven months of FY23 decreased by 15% to $15.02 billion, declining from $17.61 billion recorded in 11MFY22, registering a fall of $2.59 billion.
Textile exports decreased by 20% in May 23 as compared with the corresponding year. A decrease of 15% in 11MFY23 as compared to 11MFY22: Research Department pic.twitter.com/yLeOxUsNTR
— All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (@APTMAofficial) June 3, 2023
The South Asian economy, which is heavily dependent on the textile industry for much-needed US dollars, is concerned about the drop in textile exports. little enough for a month’s worth of necessary imports, its central bank’s remaining reserves are little over $4 billion.
APTMA has previously expressed concern that the nation’s textile exports may decline by $3 billion this year compared to last year and urged authorities to act immediately and urgently.
“The decline in textile exports has been progressively accelerating,” APTMA Patron in Chief Gohar Ejaz had said in a letter to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in April.
“Given the trajectory of decline, Pakistan is likely to fall short by $3 billion in textile exports from the exports achieved last year of $19.4 billion without taking into account any increase from newly installed capacity,” Ejaz had warned.
Meanwhile, as per latest data shared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the country’s exports during July-May (2022-23) were recorded at $25.366 billion against exports of $28.871 billion in July-May of 2021-22, a decline of 12.14%.
On a month-on-month basis, the exports during May 2023 increased by 2.29% when compared to the exports of $2.137 billion in April 2023.
