Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s textile and clothing exports posted impressive growth in the first quarter of this year, increasing by 27.41 per cent to $4.42 billion compared to $3.46bn over the year, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed.
The growth momentum is steady in the export proceeds on the back of rising demand from global market coupled with massive depreciation of the rupee as exports posted a growth of over 25pc in September from a year ago.
It is believed that the easing of lockdown in North America and European countries — top markets for Pakistani textile goods — will help boost the exports. The demand for textiles collapsed during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, but eventually recovered in the outgoing fiscal year.
In the last budget, the government had drastically reduced duty and taxes on imports of several hundred raw materials to bring down the input cost of exportable products. Liquidity issues were also resolved to a large extent by timely releasing refunds as well as payment of cash subsidies.
The government is also finalising a proposal to give subsidy on gas, LNG and electricity to the export-oriented industries.
The PBS data showed ready-made garments exports jumped by 22.77pc in value and in quantity by 19.76pc during July-Sept FY22, while those of knitwear edged up 32.97pc in value and 1.30pc in quantity, bed wear posted positive growth of 23.30pc in value and 23.41pc in quantity.
Towel exports were up by 17.94pc in value and 13.98pc in quantity, whereas those of cotton cloth rose by 21.88pc in value and dipped by 75.32pc in quantity.
