In the past five years, China's per capita fibre consumption increased five kilograms to 13 kg, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles announced on Monday.

In contrast, during the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000, the per capita fibre consumption only increased from 4.1 kg to 8 kg.

During the 10th Five-Year period (2001-2005), China's textile industry made remarkable progress and played an important role in improving people's living standards, stabilizing price levels and shrinking the divide between China's eastern and western areas, it said.

A national industrial survey showed that about 19 million people were working in China's textile industry in 2004, and figures show over 100 million Chinese farmers are providing agricultural products relating to textile production.

Out of all the Chinese industrial sectors, textile production consumes the least energy bar the finance industry, and makes an invaluable contribution to the country's economic growth, it said.

In 2004, the net export of China's textile industry reached US$80.58 billion, jumping 105.81 percent from that in 2000.

Thanks to global termination of textile quotas at the beginning of 2005, China's surplus from textile trade jumped 25.5 percent year-on-year to US$89.29 billion U.S. dollar in the January-November period of 2005, making up 98.3 percent of the country's total trade surplus.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2006)