Source: CCTV.com

02-05-2009 09:05

The support plan is certainly timely, given the latest figures for growth in China's textile exports, the increase in export volumes for 2008 fell almost 11 percentage points from growth recorded in 2007. And figures could get even more dismal.

China's textile industry had a hard year in 2008,  with profits declining for the first time in 10 years.

China's textile industry had a hard year in 2008, with profits declining for the first time in 10 years.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show that for the first 11 months of 2008, profits for textile firms fell 1.8 percent from the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, although exports hit 185 billion US dollars for the whole year, the rate of growth was down nearly 11 percentage points from that posted in 2007.

Analysts attribute the fall to a global financial crisis which has weakened overseas demands. While the rising yuan and surging labor costs have also dampened growth in the sector.

And things are not likely to improve in the near future. The Ministry of Commerce says it expects no big surge in the textile industry for this year. Even if export quotas for Chinese textiles and apparel products headed for the US and EU are scrapped for 2009, volumes are still likely to fall. And that's because demand from these 2 major importers will be further dragged down by the global economic downturn.

But the financial crisis has yet to have too large an impact on the sale of daily necessities. Analysts belive that overseas markets should still favor good-quality Chinese products that are easy on the wallet.

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Editor:Xiong Qu