Textile market growth beats peers: KSA Tech

Indian textiles and clothing market is the most happening place in the globe, if the growth rate is anything to go by.

India has achieved an 8 per cent rate of growth in textiles and clothing sales last year when all the major markets "" the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Japan ""shrunk.

The US, world's largest market, grew by 5 per cent and China by 6-8 per cent, according to data released by KSA Technopak, an agency that monitors global trends in retailing.

The data shows that Indian textiles and clothing market grew by 8 per cent to $26 billion last year, the highest among the major markets.

Japanese market shrunk by the most, 14 per cent, while UK and France, each recorded a decline of 8 per cent. Italian market contracted by 4 per cent, Swiss market by 3 per cent and Germany by 2 per cent.

Arvind K Singhal, chairman, KSA Technopak, said with the exception of the US, deceleration in all other developed countries in the last calendar year could be attributed to stagnant population and rise in value retailers.

The developed markets have been registering less than one per population growth a year and nearly 40 per cent population of these countries falls under the age bracket of either below 14 or above 64 (people who are not working).

"On the other hand, India registered the highest growth because of a combination of factors "" rising gross domestic product, increasing young population and the rising tendency of moving up the value chain," he explained.

According to KSA Technopak's estimates, India would even better the growth rate in years to come. A broad estimate of the agency shows that Indian market would more than double in the next 10 years.

Indian market is estimated to grow by $30 billion in next 10 years, more than the estimated rise in UK ($15 billion), France ($10 billion), Germany ($10 billion). Japanese and Italian market will continue to shrink by $20 billion and $5 billion, respectively.

The huge growth in demand will force India to be a major importer of textiles and clothing.

"The developed countries shall remain the largest importers, with even sharper decline in production in the US and within European Union. This will lead to further reduction in intra-EU trade," Singhal said.

In addition to demand growth, imports of specialty fabrics for conversion into clothing for domestic as well as exports and imports of high value-added fashion and lifestyle clothing and made-ups will further fuel India's import and will create several pan-Asian brands.