Chairman AEPC Dr. A Sakthivel has welcomed the exports growth of 13.47% for the month of October 2013. Speaking on the export growth Dr. A Sakthivel stated that, “ With the stabilization of rupee and structural changes in the competing markets India’s garment exports has significantly improved, our performance is reflected in the stronger order book visibility for this season.
"Our exports have also grown because of tapping of new markets like Middle East, Latin America, Japan, Russia and Australia and our effort to leverage exports by export promotion events across the world.
“In recent months large international buyers have diverted orders to India. The big brands and international chain stores like GAP, Zara, Mango, Elcorte, Desigual, Tommy Hilfiger, Walmart, H & M, JC Penny, Target, etc are sourcing garments from India. We have good design and raw material strengths and our business is based on exceptional customer service, respect and integrity in the pursuit of mutually profitable outcome.”
“With the current growth of rate we can achieve the apparel export target of US $ 17 billion set by the Government. We welcome the current growth of rate in overall exports”, he added.
Further, Chairman AEPC said, “We are registering a growth of almost 13% since more than six months in apparel exports. We are an employment critical sector and 80% of garment Industry being SME’s the industry is facing the high cost of finance, increasing the repo rate increase the lending interest rate. AEPC has already requested for separate chapter for pre/post packing credit rate of 7.5%. RBI should consider this once again so that momentum of garment export growth is not lost.
Commerce Secretary released trade data for the month of October 2013. Exports during October, 2013 were valued at US $ 27270.97 million (Rs.168031.71 crore) which was 13.47 per cent higher in Dollar terms (31.86 per cent higher in Rupee terms) than the level of US $ 24032.90 million (Rs. 127431.81 crore) during October, 2012.
Cumulative value of exports for the period April-October 2013 -14 was US $ 179376.37 million (Rs 1069226.68 crore) as against US $ 168706.81 million (Rs 918270.21 crore) registering a growth of 6.32 per cent in Dollar terms and growth of 16.44 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period last year.
Imports during October, 2013 were valued at US $ 37827.02 million (Rs.233073.43 crore) representing a negative growth of 14.50 per cent in Dollar terms and a negative growth of 0.65 per cent in Rupee terms over the level of imports valued at US $ 44243.75 million (Rs. 234597.63 crore) in October, 2012.
Cumulative value of imports for the period April-October, 2013-14 was US $ 270058.66 million (Rs. 1598772.73 crore) as against US $ 280737.65 million (Rs. 1527088.62 crore) registering a negative growth of 3.80 per cent in Dollar terms and growth of 4.69 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period last year.