In August, Pakistan’s textile sector experienced a continued decline inexports, reaching $1.48 billion, which marked a 6% drop from the $1.58billion recorded in the same month of the previous year. This informationcomes from provisional data released by the All Pakistan
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Saturday. The data alsorevealed that in the first eight months of the calendar year 2023, thecountry’s textile exports decreased by 19% to $10.58 billion, down from $13billion during the same period in 2022.
This year-on-year decline is a cause for concern for Pakistan’s economy,which is grappling with a foreign exchange shortage, leading to adepreciation of the rupee by over 25% in the inter-bank market since thebeginning of 2023.
On a positive note, there was a 13% improvement in monthly textile exports,rising from $1.31 billion in July. While the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)has seen some improvement in forex reserves, currently standing at $7.8billion due to inflows from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) andbilateral partners like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, these reserves continueto be under pressure due to external debt servicing.
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Caretaker Federal Minister for Commerce and Industries and Production, Dr.Gohar Ejaz, who also serves as the patron-in-chief of APTMA, recently setan ambitious target of $25 billion in textile exports for the currentfinancial year, surpassing the $16 billion target from the previous fiscalyear.
He also pledged a swift revival of all closed industries within thecountry, setting a tight one-month deadline, and expressed confidence inexceeding this export milestone. Gohar emphasized the commitment tosystematically address challenges hindering the textile sector’s operations.
