Despite an earlier increase in power and gas tariffs, Pakistan’s textile rose sharply in January, boosted by strong demand from international markets and favorable prices, official data showed on Friday. The recent increase in gas tariffs might impact exports.
Textile exports demonstrated a positive upswing in January 2024, registering a 10.1 percent increase to $1.455 billion compared to $1.32 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year.
During the month, its exports were 3.98 percent more than $1.4 billion in December 2023, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed on Friday. However, during July-January 2023-24, textile exports declined by three percent to $9.74 billion compared to $10.04 billion in the same period of last fiscal.
Notably, in January 2024, sales of the most significant components of the textile group increased. This includes bedwear, knitwear, towels, readymade garments, cotton cloth, and yarn.
During the month, knitwear exports increased by 8.4 percent to $365 million, bedwear by 19.3 percent to $252 million, readymade garments by 13.85 percent to $333.4 million, and towels by 5.4 percent to $96.1 million. Likewise, cotton yarn exports increased 19.8 percent to $81.3 million and cotton cloth by 0.5 percent to $159.7 million compared to January 2023.
Textile machinery declined by 34.8 percent to $11.1 million in January.
