Textile exports rise 15pc in July

Pakistan’s textile and clothing exports posted double-digit growth in the first month of this fiscal year increasing by 15.61 per cent to $1.471 billion compared to $1.272bn in July 2020, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday.

The easing of lockdown in North American and European countries — top markets for Pakistani textile goods — will help boost the exports.

The demand for textiles collapsed during the first wave of Covid-19, but it recovered in the outgoing fiscal year.

The government has drastically reduced duty and taxes on imports of several hundred raw materials to bring down the input cost of exportable products. Moreover, the liquidity issues are also resolved to a large extent by timely releasing refunds. In the outgoing fiscal year, the commerce ministry released a total of Rs6bn under DLTL schemes. This included Rs5.6bn for textile and Rs400m for non-textile sectors.