Textile Exports Fall for Third Straight Month
For the third consecutive month, Pakistan’s textile exports fell in December, falling 16.47 percent from the same month last year to $1.356 billion. Along with the decline in monetary terms, its volumetric export sales also decreased, which served as a warning to policymakers. With more than a third of all exports coming from textiles, Pakistan’s top earner of foreign currency.
The government’s policies, which include restricting imports by refusing to open credit letters, spending more on energy and bank financing, running out of dollars in the economy, and devaluing the rupee, have caused a sharp decline in textile exports for the third straight month.
Exports of textiles decreased by 16.47 percent in December 2022 compared to the corresponding months last year in October 2022, November 2022, and October 2022, respectively.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data, exports of all textile group categories, including cotton cloth, cotton yarn, knitwear, bedwear, and towels, significantly decreased. In comparison to November’s exports of $1.42 billion, the total exports of the textile group decreased by 4.56%.
When compared to December 2021, when exports of cotton cloth totaled $189.1 million, exports of cotton cloth in December 2022 fell to $162.6 million, a 14 percent decrease, while exports of cotton cloth rose 5.93% over the previous month’s exports of $153.6 million.
In the same way, compared to the same month last year, knitwear exports fell by 19.5% to $353.7 million in December 2022, bedwear by 17.8% to $208 million, towels by 14.0% to $82.2 million, ready-made clothing by 7.9% to $319.1 million, and cotton yarn sales by 50% to $53.5 million.
Knitwear exports decreased by 11.63 percent last month, bedwear by 6.3 percent, towels by 11.3 percent, and ready-to-wear exports by 7.9 percent, while cotton yarn exports rose by 24.4 percent compared to November 2022.
The total exports of the textile industry fell to $8.72 billion in the first half of 2022–23 from $9.38 billion in the corresponding period in the previous year, a decrease of 7.1 percent. At this rate, the sector won’t even be able to match its total exports from the previous year.
Total textile exports reached a record high of $19.35 billion in FY22, up more than a quarter from the $15.4 billion exported in FY21.
Exports of food groups fell 8.25 percent from November exports of $234.3 million to $398.5 million in December 2022, a 25.3 percent decrease from the $533.6 million total recorded in December 2021. In December 2022, rice exports totaled $203.15 million, up from $203 million the month before and $240.3 million in December 2021. Rice exports fell by 12 percent over the previous month, while they fell by 25.7 percent when compared to the same month last year.
IMPORTS
Imports of the petroleum group fell by 12% in December 2022 from $1.8 billion to $1.585 billion. In comparison to the $1.65 billion in imports from the previous month, its imports fell by 3.7%.
In December 2022, imports of petroleum products fell by 27.8% to $650 million from December 2021, while imports of LNG fell by 24% to $365 million. However, the amount of crude imported increased by 42 percent to $502.9 million, and the amount of LPG increased by 1.7 percent to $67.7 million.
The amount of petroleum products imported during the review period decreased by 8.2 percent over the prior month, with crude imports falling by 7.9 percent and LPG imports by 8.4 percent, whereas LNG imports rose by 14.7 percent.
Between July and December 2022–2023, total imports of the petroleum group decreased by 8.8% to $9.285 billion from $10.18 billion during the same period in the previous year. LNG imports decreased by 18.7% percent to $1.95 billion during this period, while crude oil imports increased by 15.2% to $2.78 billion and LPG imports increased by 13.1% to $357.3 million. Petroleum products imports decreased by 16.9% to $4.2 billion during this period.
Total imports in the metal category (which includes gold, iron, and other metals) fell by 40.3 percent to $376.4 million from $630.7 million in the same month last year. However, December’s imports over November 2022 rose by 3.4%.
Gold imports increased by 179.5% to $3.26 million in December 2022 compared to the same month the previous year, while imports of iron and steel (scrap) and iron and steel fell by 60% to $100.8 million and 37%, respectively.
The amount of machinery imported into the economy in December 2022 was $476 million as opposed to $1.13 billion in December 2021, a decrease of 57.8%.
In comparison to the same month last year, imports of textile machinery fell by 60.6% to $29.2 million, those for power generation equipment by 67.6% to $44.7 million, those for the telecom industry by 62.4% to $110.2 million, those for electrical equipment by 62.6% to $80.96 million, and those for construction and mining equipment by 62.8% to $10.1 million.
Reference: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1032287-textile-exports-fall-for-third-straight-month
