China garment exports slow

Textile export growth for the first five months of the year has gone up from a year ago. But export growth of completed garments have in fact dropped compared to rates for the same period in 2007. Customs authorities say that between January and May, export growth for textiles was up 26.3 percent from the same period last year.

This is compared to export growth figures for garments which has fallen a full 9 percentage points from 2007. In fact for May alone, garment exports rose by a record-low rate of 1.08 percent. Industry insiders think the slowdown in garment exports could reflect a whole string of factors as we saw in the preceding report these could be a weaker demand abroad, fast appreciation of China's currency and higher production costs.