Apparel exports down by 7.2% in Aug

Apparel exports declined by 7.2 per cent year-on-year in August to USD 989 million due to the demand slowdown in major western markets,Apparel Exports Promotion Council (AEPC) said today.

"The weak recovery in EU and the US is leading to the shortfall in the overall demand," AEPC Chairman A Sakthivel said in a statement.

He urged the government to soon ink the India-EU free trade pact, a move which will help exports. "The trade pact would boost the sector's export," he said.

The European Union (EU) and the US are the biggest markets for the textiles sector.    

During April-August, apparel exports declined by 12.16 per cent to USD 5.26 billion, he said.

Sakthivel said that besides external issues, domestic matters like rising inflation is also hurting the exports.

"To reduce the vulnerabilities to the external shocks the government needs to build fiscal space, reduce the short term debt exposure and creating the buffers that allows them to react in a resiliently manner," he added.

In 2011-12, apparel exports grew by 17.9 per cent to USD 13.7 billion.

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