Bank credit to textile’s sub-sectors declines

 Investments in textile, the primary industrial sector and the driving force behind the exports and industrial employment, have decreased to record lows. Bank credit to the spinning, weaving and finishing sector of textiles has decreased from Rs 356.75 billion at the end of September 2006, but now Rs 341.304 billion at the end of September 2007, despite a price increase in the main raw material, cotton, of close to 33%. The October 2007 trade deficit was a record high of close to $2 billion, which is what the entire year’s trade deficit used to be before 1999.