An alarming fall of over 16% in the textile exports during October 2022 in Pakistan has panicked the exporters by and large, suggesting the government to come up with a bailout strategy. The latest official export data has revealed that the textile exports have receded to $1.335 billion in October 2022 against $1.60 billion in October 2021.
It may be noted that the federal government has announced a day earlier that the export-oriented sectors would get power at an all-inclusive tariff of Rs19.99 per unit, extending billions of rupees subsidy to make it compatible in the region.
However, the upcoming winter would prove challenging for the industry, like the other regional competitors, due to short supply of gas owing to ever-high international prices due to the ongoing Russian invasion to the Ukraine.
Around 50 garment factories are reportedly closed down in Bangladesh due to a severe gas crisis. A similar situation is emerging fast in Faisalabad, the textile hub of the country, where the garment factory owners are reporting closures.
It is worth noting that the previous regime of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had been very pro-exports, announcing a number of measures one after another, thus pushing the textile exports to over $19 billion against $13 billion in 2013. The present regime of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is also doling out relief packages to the industry but the rising energy prices coupled with unprecedented fall in the value of national currency against the greenback has put the industry to a number of challenges.
The ongoing decline in the exports are causing worries in the textile sector and they believe that the dwindling trend would continue ahead due to global recession, energy crisis coupled with political uncertainty within the country.
