LAHORE: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association(Aptma) Chairman S M Tanveer has said as many as 100 textile mills are on verge of closure due viability issue and about 20 mills have already closed down operations in the country due to loss of competitiveness oozing out of real exchange appreciation and high cost of doing business.
The Aptma chairman said that majority of the textile mills are considering slashing down work force by reducing mills’ operations to two shifts a day. He said that the Aptma has been agitating against declining trend in textiles and clothing exports in the recent past, submitting to the government for an early intervention to arrest the fall. He said a sudden ‘appreciation’ in rupee value has hit hard the textile industry viability across the board.
SM Tanveer said the IMF has also stated in its six months review under the extended arrangement and modification of performance criteria that the Pak rupee has gained 1.2 per cent over the last quarter against the dollar and the real effective exchange rate has appreciated 10.6 percent since the onset of the program.
The lack of downward exchange rate flexibility and a high inflation differential relative to trading partners have caused a further loss of Pakistan’s export competitiveness in world markets, the report added.
