By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s textile and clothing exports grew at a modest pace in the first two months of the fiscal year, held back by high input costs and by shocks that have disrupted shipments to two of the country’s regional markets.
Textile exports rose 5.55% to $3.379 billion in July-August, from $3.202 billion a year earlier, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said in its monthly advance release on foreign trade on Friday. The sector is Pakistan’s largest source of export revenue.
The bureau’s data point to elevated input costs, which have eroded exporters’ competitiveness, along with two external setbacks: the suspension of trade with Afghanistan since October 2025, and falling exports to the Middle East as a result of the war in the region, particularly to the United Arab Emirates.
Garments Lead
Readymade garments were the standout, with shipments climbing 13.59% to $827.001 million from $728.088 million. By volume, garment exports rose 10.92%. Knitwear, the largest category, increased 4.79% to $1.004 billion from $958.634 million, with quantity up 9.24%.
Cotton yarn exports jumped 34.80% to $160.679 million from $119.195 million. Towel exports rose 6.74% to $191.135 million, while made-up articles, excluding towels and bedwear, gained 6.95% to $146.032 million. Other textile materials increased 3.91% to $133.153 million.
Several categories shrank. Cotton cloth fell 7.66% to $276.255 million from $299.180 million, with volume down 10.38%. Bedwear slipped 0.31% to $563.545 million from $565.322 million, and quantity fell 1.31%. Exports of art, silk and synthetic textiles dropped 11.33% to $58.638 million, tents, canvas and tarpaulin declined 7.17% to $14.877 million, and shipments of non-cotton yarn fell 31.78% to $4.051 million.
Textile exports in August were $1.565 billion, up 2.77% from $1.523 billion in the same month last year but down 13.68% from $1.814 billion in July.
Total merchandise exports in August reached $2.542 billion on a provisional basis, up 5.22% from $2.416 billion a year earlier and down 13.86% from $2.951 billion in July. For July-August, total exports were $5.494 billion, compared with $5.1 billion a year earlier, an increase of 7.73%.
Imports Outpace Exports
Imports grew faster than exports. Total imports in July-August reached $12.745 billion, up 14.56% from $11.125 billion a year earlier. August imports were $5.848 billion, up 10.59% from $5.288 billion a year earlier but down 15.22% from $6.898 billion in July. On those figures, the merchandise trade gap for the two months was roughly $7.25 billion, based on Bloomberg’s calculation from the bureau’s provisional data.
Within the import bill, raw cotton purchases rose 38.92% from a year earlier, a sign of stepped-up buying by mills. Synthetic fibre imports fell 20.40%, while arrivals of synthetic and artificial silk yarn rose 8.02%. Imports of second-hand clothing jumped 40.36%.
The oil import bill rose 8.35% to $2.750 billion from $2.538 billion. Crude oil imports increased 39.82% in value on a 13.70% rise in volume, indicating that higher international prices accounted for much of the increase. Petroleum product imports fell 2.02% in value and 28.66% in quantity.
Among gas imports, liquefied natural gas purchases fell 28.31%, while liquefied petroleum gas imports rose 14.75%.
Imports of telecommunication equipment increased 8.95%, driven mainly by “other apparatus,” while mobile handset imports declined 8.85%.
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