The depreciating rupee against dollar has boosted profits of the largest textile industry of the country, as the listed textile firms profit have jumped by 150 per cent to Rs 30.6 billion in fiscal year 2013. The fall of rupee is being viewed as a positive sign for exports of Pakistan, as the local currency has fallen 8 per cent since the beginning of 2013. Moreover, it depreciated faster in the last two months, as it went down by a sharp 4 per cent against the dollar. With a share of over 50 per cent in the country’s total exports, the textile industry has emerged stronger in fiscal 2013-14.

Industry sources believed that Pakistan’s textile exports are going to benefit from two major reasons, as China is focusing more on the technology sector instead of textile, but yarn demand from China is growing. Bangladesh which is the second biggest textile exporter in the world after China, is not getting the same number of export orders as it was getting a year ago. The country is facing major challenges in safety concerns of textile workers. Recent fire incidents in factories of Bangladesh, where hundreds of workers had died, attracted negative international media coverage.

 The listed companies, which cover 85 per cent of textile sector market capitalization, are very small compared to total Pakistan textile industry. So the actual profits of the textile industry would be much more than Rs 30.6 billion.