China´s textile industry, which contributes significantly to the country´s exports, posted slower growth in the first quarter of 2012 due to weak external demand, according to National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) data released May 10.

Industrial output by major textile enterprises rose 14.7% year-on-year to reach CNY1.24 trillion (US$197 billion) in the first three months of this year, marking a slowdown of 16.92 percentage points from a year ago, the new figures showed.

The combined profits of major textile companies dipped 2.21% year-on-year to CNY 33.42 billion between January and February, compared with an increase of 61% in the same period of last year.

In the first quarter, fixed-asset investment in the textile industry totaled CNY 117.81 billion, up 17% over a year ago. The growth rate was 21.51 percentage points lower than last year.

The NDRC data showed China exported US$20.44 billion worth of textiles and US$29.57 billion worth of garments from January to March, at a year-on-year growth rate of 1.4% and 3.9%, respectively.

The export growth of textiles and garments represented a slowdown of 31.3 percentage points and 14.5 percentage points, respectively.

However, retail sales of textile products, including clothes and footwear, in the domestic market amounted to CNY 240.9 billion, up 14.6% over the same period of last year.

Source: Xinhua