Textile exports continue upward trend in Feb

ISLAMABAD - After showing healthy growth in the month of January, textile sector once again registered a handsome growth of 21.67 percent in the February over the same period of the last year, Federal Bureau of Statistics reported on Friday.
According to the figures issued by Federal Bureau of Statistics, textiles exports were recorded at $795 million in February against $653 million in the same period of 2009.
However it showed a slight growth of 4.18 percent in the first eight months (July-February) of the current financial year against the same period of the last year.
According to the official data, export of textile industry has increased to $6.737 billion in the period under review from $6.467 billion against the same period of previous year.
The data revealed that export of following textile items in July-February increased: raw cotton 144.48 percent; cotton yarn 29.25 percent; yarn 84.51 percent; readymade garments 4.32 percent; art silk and synthetic textile 72.06 percent; made-up articles 6.79 percent; and other textile materials 37.90 percent.
Meanwhile, according to the figures, the following items of textile group showed negative growth: cotton cloth 15.39 percent; cotton carded 56.54 percent; knitwear 4.53 percent; bed wear 3.16 percent and towels 1.45 percent in the July-February period of 2009-10.
At the same time exports of food group have declined by 0.45 percent in the first eight months of the ongoing financial year.
According to the data in traditional products of food group, the export of rice declined by 2.34 percent during July-February, which stands at $2.090 billion against $2.099 billion in the same period last year. In the rice group the export of Basmati went down by 31.74 percent whereas export of other items go up by 33.45 percent.
Similarly exports of fish products decrease by 9.43 percent, leguminous vegetable (pulses) by 100 percent, tobacco 39.61 percent, wheat and sugar 100 percent. On the other hand the export of fruits went up by 49.36 percent, vegetables 72.12 percent, spices 27.10 percent, and meat 36.10 percent.
Exports of footwear went down by 29.17 percent, engineering goods 7.85 percent, cement 15.78 percent, molasses 70.76 percent, and guar and guar products 20.25 percent during the said period.
On the other hand, the imports of food commodities decreased by 25.84 percent in the first eight months of current fiscal year as they were recorded at $2.050 billion against $2.764 billion of the same period of 2008-09.
Meanwhile, import of power generating machinery decreased by 8.27 percent in the period under review.
According to the figures the imports of transport sector showed growth of 26 per cent in the period under review. In transport group road motor vehicles import went up by 17.33 per cent, CBU 1.85 percent, buses trucks and other heavy vehicles went down by 6.21 percent in July-February of 2009-10 as against July-January 2008-09.