Pakistan’s textile exports plunge 29% year-on-year in April

Pakistan’s textile sector exports witnessed a significant decline of 29%, clocking in at $1.24 billion in April 2023 compared to $1.74 billion recorded in the same month of previous year, showed provisional data released by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Tuesday.

Data showed the country’s textile exports in the first ten months of FY23 decreased by 14% to $13.71 billion from $15.97 billion a year earlier.

The decline in textile exports, a crucial industrial sector of Pakistan, has raised concerns for the South Asian economy, which is dealing with low foreign exchange reserves.

Forex reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) are treading at $4.46 billion, barely enough for a month of essential imports.

Earlier, APTMA had warned that the country’s textile exports could fall by $3 billion this year as compared to last year, while urging authorities to take immediate and urgent intervention.

“The decline in textile exports has been progressively accelerating,” APTMA Patron in Chief Gohar Ejaz had said in a letter to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

“Given the trajectory of decline, Pakistan is likely to fall short by $3 billion in textile exports from the exports achieved last year of $19.4 billion without taking into account any increase from newly installed capacity,” warned Ejaz.

Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 39.62% to $23.713 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 as compared to $39.272 billion during the same period of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The country’s exports during July-April (2022-23) were recorded at $23.174 billion against the exports of $26.247 billion in July-April of 2021-22, showing a decline of 11.71%, according to the trade data released by PBS on Tuesday.