KARACHI: The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is taking its toll on Pakistani textile export as it fell by 18.40 percent in March 2020 as compared with previous month, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
The textile export came down to $1.04 billion in March 2020 as compared with $1.27 billion in February 2020. Meanwhile export of March 2020 fell by 4.46 percent when compared with $1.09 billion in the same month of year 2019.
Industry experts said that the world trade was adversely affected by coronavirus outbreak. Most of the destinations of Pakistani exports are witnessing lockdown due to coronavirus.
They said that China, the European Union and the US are major destinations for Pakistani textile products but those countries are the worst hit of coronavirus.
The pandemic which was started from China in late December 2019 spread across the globe. The virus which claimed over three thousands human lives in China expanded the toll in the US and the EU. In fact the US and the EU are more affected by the virus as death toll increased alarmingly in these regions.
The Pakistani manufacturers had informed cancellation of export orders during the month of March 2020 as this also continued in the month of April 2020.
The impact of the pandemic on the local economy has also severe due to lockdown, which started on March 23, 2020 and still continue. This lockdown halted the manufacturing and other economic activities.
The textile exports, however, managed to post 4.24 percent growth to $10.42 billion during July – March 2019/2020 as compared with $9.99 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
Industry experts said that economic slowdown due to coronavirus in the world would further effect the Pakistani exports in coming months. They said that in case the coronavirus lockdown further expanded beyond estimates than Pakistani exports would suffer more.
