KARACHI: Leaders of the United Business Group (UBG), including S M Muneer, Zubair Tufail, Khalid Tawab, Hanif Gohar, Mazhar Ali Nasir, and Gulzar Firoz, have expressed serious concerns over a significant drop in textile exports.

The decline is being termed serious because it has come despite a substantial increase in the value of dollar, and with it the value of textile shipments from the country.

The major reasons for the decline are the historically high inflation, high interest rates, soaring energy prices, and load-shedding of both electricity and natural gas in industrial areas, they said.

Moreover, there’s a drop in the demand for clothing and textile products in the US, UK and Europe amid elevated inflation, growing energy expenditure, surging credit cost and so on in the West, where buyers are delaying payments because of global downturn and reduction in sales due to which exporters are facing a liquidity crisis.

The situation is expected to remain the same in the coming months, they said. The UBG leaders further said that according to the report of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics the country’s exports of textile and clothing have actually posted a negative growth.

Among the value-added items, bed-wear, knitwear and cotton yarn have witnessed the largest decline of 19 pc, 10 pc, and 35 pc, respectively, they added. The main reasons for the slowdown in textile exports are high energy costs and non-disbursement of refund payments.

The refund payments for September and October are still unpaid and if the situation continues textile exports may decline further, the UBG leaders added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022