China's textile industry maintained moderate growth in the first
quarter, though the growth of export to the EU and the United
States recorded a sharp drop.
China's export of garment in the first quarter grew 22.16
percent year on year to US$27.99 billion, the Economic
Information Daily quoted sources with China Textile Industry
Association as saying on Saturday.
The growth rate is 3.17 percentage points higher than that of
the same period last year, Sun Huaibin, the association's spokesman
told the newspaper.
China's textile exports to the United States and European Union
which set quota limits reached US$8.37 billion, growing only 9.7
percent increase, which is 47 percentage points lower than the
growth rate for the same period of last year.
Meanwhile, Chinese mainland's textile exports to Japan, Hong
Kong, the Republic of Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, which have no quota restrictions, jumped 28.38 percent, up
23.32 percentage points higher than the growth in last year's same
period.
Sun expected China's textile output to grow 20 percent and
exports to grow 15 percent this year, the newspaper said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2006)