19.42pc increase in textile exports

ISLAMABAD - Finally, the textile sector exports have shown positive growth of 19.42 percent in October after registering negative growth in the last few months, Federal Bureau of Statistics reported here on Thursday.
According to the official figures, the exports of textile sector remained at $819.05 million in October against $763.57 million in the same month of the last fiscal year registering an increase of over 19 percent.
However, during first four months (July-October) of 2009-10 textile exports showed negative growth of 4.72 percent. Export of the textile group remained at $3.348 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year as against $3.514 billion during the same period last year.
Export of following textile items in July-October were increased as follows: raw cotton, 78.93 percent; cotton yarn, 14.06 percent; yarn, 82.30 percent; readymade garments, 5.44 percent; art silk and synthetic textile, 74.23 percent; and other textile materials, 35.63 percent.
According to the figures, the following items of textile group showed negative growth: cotton cloth, 30.41 percent; cotton carded, 90.31 percent; knitwear, 7.94 percent; bed wear, 9 percent; towels 9.82 percent, tents, 13.07 percent; and made up articles 0.51 percent; in the first four months of 2009-10.
Meanwhile, export of traditional products of food group went down by 24.92 percent. Among these, the export of rice declined by 33.42 percent during July-October, which stands at $536 million as against $806 million in the same period last year. In the rice group, the export of Basmati went down by 50.80 percent, whereas export of other items decreased by 6.73 percent.
Exports of fish products went down by 16.49 percent; leguminous vegetable (pulses), 100 percent, tobacco 36.91 percent, wheat and sugar 100 percent. However, the export of fruits went up by 20.31 percent, vegetables, 57.26 percent, spices, 14.87 percent, oil seeds nuts and kernels, 122.40 percent, and meat, 36.53 percent.
Export of footwear went down by 16.29 percent, engineering goods, 8.55 percent, cement, 12.06 percent, molasses, 53.72 percent, and guar and guar products 47.36 percent during the said period.
On the other hand, the imports of food commodities decreased by 35,75 percent in the first four months of current fiscal year as they were recorded at $1.037 billion against $1.614 billion of the same period of 2008-09.
Meanwhile, import of power generating machinery decreased by 25.93 percent in the period under review.
According to the figures, the imports of transport sector showed positive growth of 4.14 percent in the period under review. In the transport group, import of road motor vehicles declined by 6.51 percent, CBU, 31.88 percent, buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles went down by 40.55 percent, motorcycles, 75.95 percent, and motorcars, 22.01 percent, in July-October of 2009-10 as against July-October 2008-09.