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China textile exports recover from 14-month slump

BEIJING: China's textile and garment exports have showed some signs of recovering from a 14-month slump, the China Daily Business Weekly said on Sunday.

Textile exports edged up 1.68 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 1999 to $11.73 billion, the newspaper said. Garment exports slipped 0.8 percent to $27.13 billion.

"China's textile and garment exports have already shown signs of recovery from the severe setback the industries experienced beginning in the middle of 1998," the newspaper quoted a senior official of the State Textile Bureau as saying.

China, the world's largest textile and garment exporter since 1994, saw textile exports drop for the first time in 10 years in 1996 due to the Asian financial crisis.

The 14-month slump cost China more than $3 billion, the bureau said.

But a strong international market and backing from the Chinese government broke the fall in textile and garment exports in the second half of 1999, the newspaper said.

Textile firms have become more competitive by doing away with surplus production capacity and laying off redundant workers, the official said.

Wang Lie, a bureau vice director, predicted that the United States would replace China as the number one textile and garment exporter, the newspaper said. The paper gave no further details. - Reuters