Chinese textile firms' profits declined for the first time in ten years as a result of reduced oversea demands. The decline started during the second half of 2008 when the financial crisis began impacting the world economy.

Textile firms took in 104.2 billion yuan (US$15.3 billion) in profits in the first 11 months of last year, a fall of 1.77 percent over the same period in 2007, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

"This was the first decline in profits for the country's textile sector in 10 years," said Wang Qianjin, chief editor of the country's leading textile web site webtextiles.com.

The NBS also said losses for textile firms added up to 22.75 billion yuan from January to November last year. That is almost double the figure for the same period in 2007.

Wang said profits for the textile sector for 2008 would remain the same or less than 2007. Textile firm profits surged nearly 38 percent in 2007.

Fan Min, chief editor of a weekly textile magazine under the Ministry of Commerce, said he expected textile exports to fall 30 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2009)