Pakistan’s textile and apparel exports saw a negative growth rate of 15.23% in October compared to the same month last year, according to figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday.
Along with the non-disbursement of refund money, a slowdown in textile exports was caused by high energy costs. Exporters are concerned that if the situation persists, the November textile export may fall even more.
Refund payment orders for the period of September 16 to October 17 are yet unpaid.
The export revenue for textile and apparel decreased to $1.35 billion in October from $1.60 billion in the comparable month of previous year.
Exports of textile and apparel decreased by 1.34 percent from July to October, falling to $5.94 billion from $6.02 billion during the same period last year. While cotton exports had a 100% increase in October, value-added goods exports saw a uniformly negative trend. In October of last year, there were 1,725 tonnes of raw cotton exports.
According to data, ready-made clothing exports increased 58.79 percent in volume and 2.46 percent in value between July and October. However, exports decreased 7.36 percent year over year in October.
Knitwear exports increased 6.92 percent in value and 47.06 percent in volume in 4MFY23, but they decreased 14.32 percent year over year in October. In the four months compared to a year before, bedwear exports fell by 23.30 percent in quantity and 8.64 percent in value.
In terms of year on year growth, raw cotton exports increased by 100% in July through October of FY23. On a month-over-month basis, imports of raw cotton are up 9 percent while the quantity is up 15 percent.
Although the total amount of raw cotton imported in 4MFY23 is up 4.7%, the quantity imported is down 11%, indicating that the sector has not yet made up for the scarcity of domestic cotton harvests brought on by the floods.