Garment exports down 8.71% in Jan-August

Earnings from exports of garments and textiles declined by 8.71 percent to $1.9 billion in the first eight months of the year from $2.08 billion in the same period last year, the Garment and Textile Export Board (GTEB) reported yesterday.

Garments and textiles are the country’s second largest export earners next to semiconductors and electronics.

Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II, however, is unperturbed by the drop in earnings from garments.

"The rate of the decline in garments and textile exports has gone down from 24 percent during the first quarter this year to 16 percent by the end of the first semester to a single-digit level by July," Roxas explained.

He said the slower decline may be due to several factors which include the improvement in demand from the US, the recovery of the European Union market, the broadening of the non-quota markets, and the strong rebound of non-apparel exports.

The US accounts for 74 percent of the country’s garments and textile exports.

Demand from the US had shrank by as much as 27 percent during the first quarter this year. As of end-August, exports to the US were nearly 12 percent lower from a year earlier.

The Philippines exported $1.4-billion worth of garments and textiles to the US during the first eight months of the year.

The second biggest export market for locally-made garments and textiles is the EU which accounts for almost 12 percent of the country’s garments and textile shipments. – Marianne Go