LAHORE - The Pakistani rupee will be appreciate to Rs102 against a dollar with further improvement in textile exports ahead, which registered increase of 21 per cent in December 2014, translating into foreign exchange earnings of $215 million.
The bullish textile sector growth can also motivate the act of current account deficit which is presently at the level of $18 billion. The textile sector has a complete plan to match textile exports to the annual current account deficit of the country. According to industry experts, the rupee has also appreciated against dollar due to improvement in textile and the unemployment has also come down to 6% in December 2013 against 6.20% in December 2012. Moreover, the LSM has registered bullish trend during the same period from 2.24% to 5.23%. According to them, the yarn and cotton cloth export has reduced by 9% and 13% respectively during December 2013 against corresponding period. On the other hand, the value added sector products have grown in between 17% to 46% in the same period, which is a healthy sign.
APTMA Punjab chairman SM Tanvier, while addressing a press conference, said the current industry trend is encouraging and upward mainly due to energy supply. He said the Punjab-based textile industry was altogether crippled due to energy constraints and for the first time the government has realized the fact and ensured energy supply under a special arrangement during winter.
He lamented that the prime users of electricity are yet facing 8 hours a day load shedding and appealed that they should be exempted from load shedding, having a total demand of 126MW in total.